


Forced Kindness

by Ninni51



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time & Explorers of Darkness & Explorers of Sky
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cute, Existential Angst, Exploration, Fluff, Gen, Pokemon, Ralts is a disgruntled baby, Self-Insert, Sunflora really does say Oh my Gosh a lot huh, Worldbuilding, do I start adding random tags like the cool kids do?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:15:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 38,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27139937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninni51/pseuds/Ninni51
Summary: Because it's only really fun when you are not directly involved with things. The Wigglytuff Guild has a new, tiny problem, in the shape of a Human-turned-Ralts, sending everything careening in different directions like a bowling ball hitting the pins, while he himself has to figure out how to prevent time from being undone while being only as tall as a soda bottle.At least the berries are tasty.
Comments: 28
Kudos: 58





	1. Breaking Out (Breaking In)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [PMD: Warped Skies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17549570) by [Team_Ion_Pokemon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Ion_Pokemon/pseuds/Team_Ion_Pokemon). 



It was dark.

Very much dark.

He... he? Yes, he sounded very much right. He opened his eyes, and he still couldn’t be quite sure if he’d actually opened them.

He couldn’t feel anything, though there also wasn't the sort of numbness that came with anesthesia.

It was still dark.

He floated in the darkness for an unknown amount of time.

It felt weird, to not feel, but it was also comforting. Like he was relieved of a burden he previously didn’t know he had, and now all that was left was the lack of feel.

And then the nothing was replaced by something, and that something came with a vague sense of sensory overload.

Lights of all colors were shining around him, and they should have blinded him with how much he’d been in the darkness, but they didn’t. Perhaps because he lacked eyes.

“Welcome!” a voice trilled. It was jolly, light, musical. It also sounded vaguely familiar, but that might have just been his imagination.

“This is the portal that leads to the world inhabited only by Pokémon.” Was that where he was? A portal? What were portals like, to begin with? And what were Pokémon?

“Beyond this gateway, many new adventures and fresh experiences await your arrival!” it continued, unaware or perhaps ignoring his inner questionings. He didn't have a mouth to protest anyways.

Someone was waiting for him? Who were they? Why were they waiting? This experience was already feeling too fresh for him.

“Before you depart for your adventure, you must answer some questions.” The voice had already mentioned adventures twice already. What kind of adventure would it be?

“Be truthful when you answer them!” it said, in a semi-conspiratory tone. Lying hadn’t been on his mind until the voice had mentioned it in the first place. Was he supposed to lie then? No, it wasn’t sarcastic. Just a bit of teasing.

Probably.

Who was this person? Were they even a person at all, or just a disembodied voice?

“Now, are you ready?” he didn’t feel ready. How could he answer questions when all he knew was the darkness that enveloped him earlier and the light that was around him now? “Then… let the questions begin!”

He wondered if he was even the one that the voice was speaking to. For all he knew, he was listening in to someone else’s conversation. Maybe the voice was speaking on a phone. What was a phone again?

“Do you want to be taller someday?” The voice asked, turning questioning and oddly serious.

It wasn’t the “you’re screwed” or “I’m mad” kind of serious, but it suddenly sounded like he was a job interview. Which was the complete opposite of the nature of the question. It sounded silly, inconsequential and for a long second he didn’t know how to respond to that, since he had no idea of what his height was.

But then information began flooding his mind. It was vague and blurry, but still information. Something that he'd been sorely missing. He’d never been a tall person. None in his family, though he couldn’t remember who they were, had been tall people. It ran in their genes.

And there was some sort of… societal stigma against short people. Maybe. He might be making that up. But still, being taller could only be a good thing, he supposed, so- yeah.

The voice seemed satisfied with that answer, since it continued. “You discover a beat-up-looking treasure chest in some ruins. What do you do?”

His first instinct was to say that he would open it, but he paused. It was probably more complicated than that, wasn’t it?

He tried to recall everything he could about such a situation, and was reminded of dice and character sheets for some sort of game.

Chests sometimes would just be creatures in disguise, right? Or they would be rigged to explode, or some other mean trick. But didn’t that happen only in fiction? But then again… Pokémon… He didn’t even know where his train of thought was going. It was better to go back to the question.

In the end… he’d probably prod it from far away to make sure that it’s not some sort of trap. Maybe chuck something at it, for good measure.

“Do you think it’s important to always aim to be the best?” The voice asked, again. Apparently he had answered the question correctly, or as correctly as he could anyways.

Answering this one was quicker than the others. _I'm gonna be the very best, like no one ever was_ \- but catchy rythyms aside, thinking about it logically, there was a very small chance of being the best at something. And even if one managed to achieve that, it would mean sacrificing everything else for the sake of it. So, it was a no.

“If you saw someone doing something bad, could you scold them?” was the next question the voice posed.

His father… no, was it his mother? Someone had always advised him to keep his head out of other people’s businesses so that he wouldn’t end up in trouble.

And yet, perhaps because of rebelliousness, he always tried to at least make people aware that what they were doing was bad. Never in a know-it-all or looking-for-trouble way, just calmly letting them know. People already knew that what they were doing was bad, a scolding was not the kind of thing they needed.

“Have you ever accidentally called a teacher “Mom” or “Dad”?” He felt embarrassment, though not accompanied by the usual heat that would rush to him at that. Though he wasn’t sure he had a body to begin with.

He had. Multiple times. But he could lie a little, right?

No, he had not.

There was a small pause in which the voice didn’t talk, and he (metaphorically) held his breath. Had he messed up?

“Good news and bad news… Which one do you want to hear first?” It said. The tone was even and the same as every other question, yet he couldn’t help but feel terrified.

He’d messed up, he’d definitely messed up. He couldn’t even remember who he was and he’d already done goofed. He’d been such an idiot, he-

He… wanted to hear the bad news first. Might as well get whatever it was out of the way. “There’s someone behind you!” It announced.

He tried to turn and look, and he figured he did, because the colors shifted from a peaceful yellow to an angry red. Uh-oh-

“So… did you look just now?” It asked mischievously. …seriously? He couldn’t help but feel annoyed at the fact that the voice had pranked him. It scared him for nothing!

“You’re on a stroll when a TV crew pounces on you for an interview. What do you do?” The voice seemed to move on from it seemingly at random. Despite the annoyance, the confusion and everything, he found a little amusement bubbling up. A quick retort had come to mind. ‘Like you've been doing just now?’ He thought.

The voice didn’t answer for a long second, before he heard the disembodied voice chuckling. There were words along with it, but they were too faint to make out, before it resumed speaking at an audible volume.

“One last question. Are you male or female?” it asked. He’d been thinking of himself as male until now, so… And as he thought about that, the colors went away once again, bleeding into darkness.

He could still _feel_ the colors though, a sensation that he’d ignored up until this moment in favor of the visual feedback he’d been receiving.

“And now your aura will be analyzed.” Aura? As in the mystic voodoo stuff? “Your aura is the energy that you radiate!” it answered. Oh. So, mystic voodoo stuff.

Colors came into view once more, though more subdued. He’d already missed them. With them, however, came into view an actual object.

A ribbon, sitting in front of him. Though, as everything in this place, the distance was relative. “Relax. Calm yourself… And now, press your fingertip on the bow.”

It was easier said than done.

He basically had to will his finger into existence, making it be there by pure power of imagination. And when he did, a wave of something rippled through him and he lost concentration.

And the world fell into darkness once more. “Don’t move your finger quite yet. The bow won’t bite, I promise.” The voice teased. Colors returned, and the bow reappeared. He hesitantly did the same thing again, trying not to lose concentration despite feeling something that was reaching into him.

“That’s right… Stay perfectly still…” what was going on still unnerved him, but he found that he trusted the voice’s judgment on this. “Take a deep breath… and now exhale…” eventually he managed to will himself into doing so, feeling a little more like a living creature. “Your aura is…”

The voice began to exclaim as the world shifted in color to match what it was saying. “A gentle mint green!” he felt at ease around the color, seeing it color the entire world into an easier on the metaphorical eyes sheen.

“Thank you for answering all those questions.” It said, sounding like it meant it. “You seem to be… the sassy type!” Was that what this questionnaire was about? “Or at least somewhat sassy! You don't like taking orders. You're a little rebellious and like to disagree with others. But…”

“You are also quite the timid type.” That sounded like a contradiction. “While when dealing with a situation you can be sassy to defend yourself, you’re also very wary of getting into those situations in the first place.

"You’re a little shy about getting in new challenges, wanting to know more about everything before making your judgement, without backing out though. Although, it’s a good thing to have a level head, isn’t it?” He was really missing the point here.

“So, someone who’s timid but will show his fangs when pressured… “ it announced, voice growing as if to say something grand. “Will be a Ralts!” What? He couldn’t be a Ralts. “Ok, that’s it! You’re all ready to go! You’re off to the world of Pokémon!” This made no sense! He was a hu- “Stay safe out there! And be victorious!” The world faded to darkness once more.

* * *

A gasp tore itself out of my throat as I felt everything rush back to me. How my whole identity had been stripped from me in some sort of divine analysis of my soul, only to come back to me all at once. And everything _had_ come back (or at least, I didn’t feel any gaps in my memory. Would someone with partial amnesia even know they have amnesia?), minus how exactly I’d gotten here.

…

Where am I?

It's kinda cold in here. And wet.

It feels claustrophobic.

I tried to feel my way around the place I was into, despite the lack of light, but it felt like the inside of a zorbing sphere. I was rolling around.

I began struggling, taken by a primal fear of being enclosed. Kicking, beating and even smashing my head. Though the latter happened only once, since my forehead felt extremely sensitive for some reason. It was the equivalent sensation of a wedge driving its way into my skull.

That headbutt did manage to get me a small bit of light though, through a hole. I weakly reached out with my hands- I couldn't feel my fingers, but there was still enough prehensile strength for me to break whatever it was around me and push free.

I fell over with a gasp, pretty tired from the activity, and closed my eyes to shield myself from the piercing light.

For a few moments, I just lied there, trying to get my bearings straight. It was difficult, but I managed to slowly open my eyes, to find myself staring at... a familiar mint green. I realized only after a moment that it was covering my eyes.

I could see only in the very middle of my field of vision, though parting my... hair revealed that I was in the middle of some sort of stone room. Blue-gray walls with a gray, gravelly floor that I was currently sitting on, and light coming from... no discernible source. Troubling.

I tried to stand up on weak arms and legs, and found myself unable to. As panic bubbled into me, I tried again, and this time, as I focused on the task, it came with ease, and I felt light as a feather.

I stared at my arms as I did so. They were pudgy things, with no proper hands though I could still flex the 3 “fingers”, and they were a stark white.

My legs, also stark white, were not visible beneath a... membrane...? I couldn't tell what it was that made a sort of "pants" around my legs, covering most of me. Though if it was skin, oh my god ew.

I… really was a Ralts...

And then I felt it.

This... anger. Primal, animalistic anger, and hunger, and fear. I could feel the emotions, but also... not? It was like these emotions were bubbling up into my head, but they weren't... mine. I had nothing to be angry about. Or rather- I had a lot, but I just didn’t feel angry about that. This anger did not come from me.

And then I heard a sound. Turning around to face a corridor, I saw what was the source of the hangry feeling that I was… feeling, but not from me. It’s weird.

There was some kind of big (or at least taller than I was), humanoidish reptile standing in front of me. It was blue, with a snout that made me think of a dinosaur, and a protusion on its head like a helmet. Fangs were sticking out of the corners of its mouth. And it was staring at me like I was prey.

Now- I'm not normally the type to get violent. Especially with wild animals, I'd much rather flee than fight. To my excuse- I was at least half as angry as he was, alright?

I picked up a chunk of the thing I broke out of, a piece of my eggshell, and I watched it charge towards me. As its head hit the eggshell, I was blown backwards and rolled across the ground, scraping myself up. Ow.

"You- fucker!" I coughed out, hearing my own voice for the first time. It was frankly... squeaky, like a dog toy, and it was disconcerting to hear it coming out of my throat.

It was also laced with some sort of weird power, because I could see a shockwave part from in front of my mouth and slamming into the thing, who grabbed at its ears, but was still standing. As it was, it reared back- my eyes widened as I realized that the Bagon was about to hit me with a Dragon Rage.

I curled up from my place on the ground, unable to do anything to protect myself from it but wishing to be spared of the pain, and I watched as the dragon roared and let out blue mist from its mouth. It ate into the remains of my eggshell and slammed into me... or washed over me, as it was, since it did absolutely nothing.

...oh.

"DIE!" I shrieked, wanting to get back on the attack and trying to will power into my voice. Thankfully the Bagon followed my command and died.

...well, hopefully not. But it did keel over and fall to the ground, clutching its ears.

I tried to stand up, and again I had to pour my full concentration into the task at hand to do so. It appeared that this body just couldn't multitask, which made the fact that I had been forced to fight from the ground all the more annoying. Slowly, I waddled over and tried to make sure that it was down for the count (it was), and sighed. I had no idea what was going on.

...what I did notice, however, was the minty green bow that was left next to the melted remains of my eggshell.

Mine.

I strode over and grabbed it, trying to think of a good location for it...

I could tighten it, but I had no idea how to unwrap it without fingers, something that annoyingly made it impossible to tie around my neck, though i was trying to loosen it up. But since that wasn't an option, I... oh.

The bow seemed to fit nicely around the weighty-feeler on my head, the extra-sensitive thing. And... it felt nice, there. I had no idea how silly I looked, but now the ribbon was on my horn.

...that still left the fact that I needed to get out of here, somehow. I think.

I began walking down the corridor the Bagon came from, armed with a piece of eggshell as my shield, and I began rubbing absently at my shoulder. I hadn't been hurt bad, not really, and the Bagon that attacked me was most likely a baby itself, given how easily it went down. but I wasn't raring for another fight.

"Potato, potato, potato-o-o- vegetables." I said to myself, both to test my vocal range and to fill the solitude. I didn't like my new voice, it was very shrill. Though I guess some might even put off by it in combat.

I guess you can call it a Disarming Voice.

Horrible puns aside, it seemed like the universe didn't appreciate me thinking that I didn't want to fight any more, because the feeling of hanger that I now recognized coming from my horn came back. Walking down the next corridor, nothing really seemed to change. Same blue-grey stone, and no change in the lighting. When I looked for my shadow, it seemed to be directly below me, though I couldn’t see any light source above me unless the ceiling counted.

As I entered the next room, I found a pile of coins on the floor, that I wasn't sure what to do with, and a blue colored orange.

There was also another Bagon that was watching the berry. When we locked eyes, even though nothing was spoken, I could get the general gist of what he thought- _I_ _t's on_.

Thankfully, however, I had more brains and type advantage, and it didn't seem to be able to think that well as it attacked me with Dragon Rages. Two Disarming Voices later, the Bagon was on the floor clutching its skull. Sorry not sorry.

I strode over and picked up the berry. It was a blue-colored berry, maybe as big as one of my fists. My eyes wandered between it and the coin, and ultimately decided that newborns didn't have much need for money.

However, as I was thinking what to do next, I saw rounding the corner another Bagon, who locked eyes with me and began roaring.

...was this how it was going to be? Was I born into a Bagon filled lair or something?

Messing with Bagons, incidentally, stopped being fun 5 Bagons ago.

While this place thankfully kept my mind on survival and not on my condition, it was starting to grate on me.

I found some stairs descending further into the cave- and try as I might, I didn't manage to actually find some ascending stairs, removing the idea that I might find a way out of this cave by simply going up. The stairs were, oddly enough, built with a care and smoothness that didn't seem to be respected in the rest of the cave. It was weird and unusual.

When I got to the second floor it was more of the same thing. More Bagons, more rooms. But as I said, why specifically 5 more Bagons?

Because at the 8th of the shell-headed fuckers total, I was already starting to feel weak on my own. Couple that with the breath catching in my throat and the power running out as I'd managed to land only one Disarming Voice meant that I was struck in the face by an angry Bagon. And try as I might, even as it breathed a Dragon Rage in my face, I couldn't manage to shriek any more.

I had to headbutt it in the face, which hurt me almost as much as it hurt him if I had to guess. I was almost blinded by the pain of slamming my hypersensitive horn into something.

And I did it repeatedly, until it went KO. I did too, incidentally and woke up an indeterminate amount of time later, with the blue Pokémon still on me, but more messed up than I was and still out of it.

I weakly grasped at the berry that I'd kept in hand, and began biting at it. And then I began crying.

It was... you ever taste an orange? Well, imagine that, but also lemon, grape, pepper, walnut and a variety of other tastes. It was... amazing. I wouldn't say it was my favorite thing, but it was very good.

My fatigue seemed to vanish, and I was more full than I was before. It wasn't hard to then wiggle my way from under the Bagon, but I was still out of voice.

And then I felt more emotion coming from one of the hallways. But unlike the others, where it had been uncontrolled rage, this was... there were multiple things. Excitement, fear. A wish to prove oneself. And many more.

I couldn't focus on them for long, however, since another Pokemon rounded the corner. It was a... flower, kind of. It still held the vaguely humanoid shape, but it had a green body with stubby limbs and its head was a yellow flower, with the center separated into three parts and the center one housing a face.

Behind it were one or more Pokémon, but I couldn't really take note of them because she proceeded to shout a "Take this!". And after that, I was pelted by numerous seeds hitting me in various parts of the body.

I hissed in pain at the first that hit me on the hand. Another on my chest, making me stumble backwards. Two more on my face, hitting as hard as bullets.

I received what I would consider a critical hit and that put me out for the count when a fifth seed struck my horn. I was blind to the world with pain, but I thankfully passed out shortly after that.

My first encounter with another sentient Pokémon ended up in me getting demolished by a Sunflora’s Bullet seed.

Joy.

* * *

**Omake:** _In which the disembodied voice is just a little less patient with the MC's shenanigans._

**Canon level: Delicious Tenpura** (0/10)

“Have you ever accidentally called a teacher “Mom” or “Dad”?” He felt embarrassment, though not accompanied by the usual heat that would rush to him at that. Though he wasn’t sure he had a body to begin with.

He had. Multiple times. But he could lie a little, right?

No, he had not.

There was a small pause in which the voice didn’t talk, and he (metaphorically) held his breath. Had he messed up?

And then, came to his metaphorical ears the sound of a record scratch.

“What did you just say right now?” the voice asked.

“I-”  
  


“What the fuck did you just say right now?” the voice asked, interrupting any attempt he may have had at replying. “Holy Arceus father of all Pokémon, really? The one thing that’s asked of you in this fucking quiz is to not lie and what do you do? You lie. Good job dumbass.”

“Well I didn’t ask to take-”  
  
“WeLl I dIdN’t AsK tO tAkE shut the fuck up you whiny bitch. This is supposed to be a literal test of your soul, and what do you do? You lie. What does that say about you? That you’re a piece of shit who can’t even keep his answers straight? What if I’d actually recorded it like that, huh? Would you like to be reincarnated as a Magikarp in the middle of the fucking desert, waiting like the world’s most delicious tempura to be cooked alive by the sun and eaten by a fucking Pupitar, huh?! DO YOU?!” It shouted.

“Meep. N-no…” I mumbled apologetically. The colors were now shifting from an angry red to a black.

“Of fucking course you don’t, you dolt…” the voice sighed angrily. “...ugh, what a time to rhyme… shit, not again!” A few moments of awkward silence passed.

“Look. You know what? I don’t have to deal with this. I very literally don’t have to deal with this. Let’s just- I’ll roll everything back, and you’ll forget that this happen, you’ll lie again because that’s the type of terrible person you are, and I’ll pretend everything is fine and just jot down as though you’d answered honestly.” The sensation of wind blowing on his face, bringing about confusion and forgetfulness came as the voice took a deep breath and exhaled. “I don’t get paid enough for this.”

“Wh-” he tried to mumble, but halfway through he forgot everything that happened in the last few seconds.

“Have you ever called a teacher Mom or Dad?” for a teeny, tiny moment, the voice hoped that a minimal part of the experience had clung to the would-be reincarnee, so that they may answer honestly.

“No, I have not.” the dipshit replied.

The voice cut off the psychic connection for just a moment.

“THIS WORLD IS DOOMED!” it screamed into the void.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter! We die without a beta, like men. ᴵᶠ ᵃⁿʸᵒⁿᵉ ʷᵃⁿᵗˢ ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉᵗᵃ ᵖˡᵉᵃˢᵉ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵃᶜᵗ ᵐᵉ 
> 
> This chapter, ideally, will set the tone for the rest of the story- a lot of Pokémon are recognized on sight by our dear  
> (currently nameless) Protagonist, but he'll still describe them fully to the best of his capacity. He'll also feel what other Pokémon feel! How convenient for him, since he would otherwise have no way to understand Pokémon cues. :)


	2. Home is where the heart is (and much closer than you'd think)

"Oh my gosh!" Sunflora gasped, running over to the downed Ralts. "I'm so-so-so sorry!" She shouted.

Whismur behind her muttered something.

"Huh?" she turned around. She was usually mindful of Whismur's tiny voice, but she'd gotten too far to hear him.

He mumbled something else, before clearing his throat. " **I SAID!** I DO NOT THINK THAT THEY CAN HEAR YOU AFTER YOU KNOCKED THEM OUT LIKE THAT." Whismur shouted, nearly breaking Sunflora's eardrums.

"Y-yeah..." she looked back guiltily at the Ralts. It was completely out cold, and she'd realized only as she attacked that it wasn't a feral due to the piece of clothing hanging by their horn. "I- should we leave?" she asked, waiting for Whismur to get closer so that she could hear him.

He thought over it. "I wanted to test myself against the final floor’s Salamence, but... hnnngh..." he muttered, the decision challenging. "Man, Marowak could've really told us that there was someone else in the dungeon!"

"...what's this?" Sunflora asked, momentarily distracted by something that was in the Ralts' hair. Besides the super pretty bow that it was wearing, she found herself brushing something out of its hair, grabbing it.

"Is this a piece of an egg?" she said, clutching the chunk of eggshell.

" **HUH?** " Whismur shouted, and came over to inspect it as well. "Damn, it is!"

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Did we just attack someone’s baby?! What if his mother finds out?!" Sunflora began panicking. And as she was doing so, a feral Bagon rounded the corner and began charging at them, before getting taken out by an Echoed Voice courtesy of Whismur.

“What do we do now?” she asked, glancing back down. “Oh my gosh, they’re bleeding!” she said, inspecting the spots that she’d struck with Bullet Seed. A terrible moment for her to be so good at the move. "This is it, we're leaving! Even though we accidentally downed them, this is no place for a Pokémon so young!" she fished out the Escape Orb that she kept in her satchel for all occasions, and grabbed the unconscious Ralts.

"But we-" Whismur began, before being struck by his teammate’s glare. “BAH, FINE!” he shouted, getting close to her as she activated the effect. A flash of blue light, and then they were staring into Marowak's eyes rather than the walls of the Dragon Den in the Dojo.

"Back so soon-...?" Marowak asked, before gasping at the sight of a third Pokemon with them. "What is tha-"

"Wefoundaninjuredpokemonandwehavetobringittogethealingwereleavingnowsorry!" Sunflora shouted all in one breath, as the two of them ran out of the dojo and into Treasure Town. In her hurry to leave, she shoulder checked one of the bones that made the entrance to the dens. There was something crumbling behind her, but she had no time to waste.

Sadly, Chansey's Daycare didn't seem to be open, so she had to ferry the green haired ‘mon all the way over to the Guild’s Entrance. Chimecho would know what to do.

The sight of the two of them running across the town with a Pokémon in hand was certain to draw the stares of its denizens. However, as they made their way to the guild, they had to, of course, stop by the gates.

"Pokémon Detected! Pokémon Detected!" Sunflora heard as she stepped on the grate. And she couldn't quite hear him, but Whismur let out a whisper that sounded suspiciously like "Whose footsteps is it?"

"Let us in Diglett! This is an emergency!" she shouted down the grate. For a moment, nothing happened, but then she was thankfully allowed passage into the guild.

...

"How do we get them down there?!" Sunflora shouted, staring down the ladder that led to the guild proper. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, what now- Whismur, drop him in when I reach the bottom of the stairs!"

"WHAT?! Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" he shouted back.

"We have to get this Ralts quickly to Chimes, or else-"

"There will be no one thrown down the ladder here." The stern though melodic voice of Chatot called from the first floor belowground of the guild as he hopped up the ladder. "What is the meaning of this?!" he said once he laid eyes on the injured infant.

"Well, first we were training at the Marowak Dojo-" "WE DIDN'T KNOW THERE WAS SOMEONE IN THERE-" "and ohmygosh we found this newborn Ralts in-" "SUNFLORA BULLET SEEDED IT TO UNCONSCIOUSNESS!" "And Whismur was doing nothing to help, so I had to rush here-" "IT WAS ALL HER FAULT." The two of them glared at each other at the end of their explaination, before cowing in fear to the way Chatot was glaring at _them_.

"And so you two were planning to toss this Ralts down to the next floor, aggravating _further_ , since I can't imagine how much you shook him while getting here, injuries that you caused?" Chatot pressed.

"..." "..." the two guild students stayed silent.

"Go grab a reviver seed from the Kecleon shop. And it's coming out of _your pay_." he barked out, and the two of them dashed away from the guild, leaving chatot with an unconscious and wounded Ralts.

"...a newborn, they said? This is not good, not good at all." Chatot asked to no one in particular, as he inspected. Thankfully the Pokemon in front of him didn't seem _too_ roughed up, despite unconsciousness, but it was still reprehensible for them to act so rashly.

He grabbed the Ralts as gently as he could in his talons, and carried him flying into the kitchen, ignoring Croagunk's interested "Meh-heh-heh... what's going on, Chatot?" and Corphish' "Hey, hey! What's that?".

He entered the room, foregoing knocking on the door, to find a turned around Chimecho using her psychic powers to clean up the shelves. "Leave the berries on the table, Bidoof. Thank you for being such a sweetheart, we'll make a fine dinner tonight."

Chatot coughed, drawing her attention. "Oh. Hello, Chatot. I assume that this is not dinner?" she tittered, using Psychic to fish the pokemon out of his talons before turning serious. "Oh dear."

"Could you see to his recovery? I need to inform Guildmaster Wigglytuff of this.  Oh, if this is the son of Gallade of team Raider or Gardevoir of team Charm,  how much this will reflect poorly on the guild…” he bemoaned. “Sunflora and Whismur will be on no food for the rest of the week, if that’s the  last punishment  I do le !” he roared, though it came out as more of an angry chirp.

“Nevertheless, the Guildmaster may be able to get in contact with whoever brought such a young one inside of a Dungeon. Irresponsible, the lot of them." he grumbled as he began stalking off.

"This is a baby?" Chimecho gasped. "Oh dear. Made to battle so young... but, found inside a Mysterious Dungeon. Are you sure this Ralts isn't feral?" she said, wary for a moment.

Chatot’s eyes softened at that. "Sunflora and Whismur found him in an area where Ralts normally don't appear, but... do keep an eye on this Ralts, just to be sure. Thank you, Chimecho." he said, in way of parting, leaving Chimecho and Ralts alone together.

"Let's see here..." the Chimecho rang, using Heal Pulse to remove some of the injuries that were on the Ralts, who still gave no signs of being less out of it. "Dear, you must be exhausted..." she said, floating him over and out of the kitchen, where she found Croagunk peering in curiously.

"Meh heh heh, I saw Chatot huffing and puffing his way into the Guildmaster's room, talking about irresponsible parents or something. Who's that?"

"We're still trying to figure out." Chimecho smiled placidly. "I will find somewhere for this Ralts to bed down, would you mind looking over them?"

"Meh heh heh, of course. I'll make sure nothing bad happens." Croagunk swore.

She went into her room, placing him down on Sunflora's bed. While she hadn't quite heard what was going on, it was apparently something she had caused, the least she could do was offer her bed.

"Sleep well."

* * *

I found myself involuntarily swallowing something tiny. It was the first sensation I got, and I began hacking and coughing, thinking an insect got somehow stuck in my throat, but something clamped down on my mouth and I immediatley felt weak as I tried to spit out whatever it was. (As I would later learn, I was basically trying to faint myself by spitting out a Reviver Seed).

I stared in confusion and panic at my surroundings. This isn't my room. Or my house. And in front of me was a massive (we're talking more twice my size) humanoid toad thing. It was blue, tall and with yellow eyes and black arms.

"Meh-heh-heh, easy there. Swallow." I was reluctant to follow the advice of an antropom- a Croagunk, right. It was a Croagunk.

I raised my hands to stare at them, and finally taking notice of the red horn coming out of my forehead and the green hair that I'd kind of just ignored.

...I realized only now that my nose is just two holes in the middle of my face, and covered by fur. Ugh.

"Meh heh heh. You good?" the Croagunk said, as I was eventually forced to swallow. I noted that he was emanating an aura of chill, which made things slightly better, though there was a sea of emotion out there for me to lose myself in that was giving me a headache. I tried to focus on him.

"...yeah." I muttered. "Where... am I?" I asked. I wondered if this was a trainer's house, or something. But that would mean...

My blood ran cold as I had a realization. "Was I caught?!" i looked at him frantically, trying to read his expression, though I realized that it was easier to read his mood. His chill shifted to a moderate confusion.

"Meh heh heh. Why, you do something bad, kid?" I was confused now. "A criminal right out of the eggshell? Should i report you to officer Magnezone, meh heh heh?" he chortled. I just stared at him.

"Come on. Chimecho will want to see you, and I have a Swap Shop to set up." he said, grabbing my hand (how did he do that without fingers?) before having me stand up, only for me to forget how to walk and embarassing myself.

Walking on two legs that lacked the muscle to lift myself was easier when my mind wasn’t being constantly assaulted.

After a few… _rather_ _embarassing_ moments I managed to get myself to walk as well, with Croagunk’s help. And so, I trudged along. As we moved, I quickly realized that I was going to be overwhelmed by the emotions that were felt in this place. Worry, interest, boredom, _a frankly_ _staggering_ _amount of happiness_ , and... guilt?

I turned around to face the source of that last emotion. It seemed that it was in one of the other rooms of this... cave thing that looked really familiar.

"Who's there...?" I asked. There was no one else visible, but they were the closest besides Croagunk. I was hit by twin waves of panic coming out of the room, and I felt the need to hide behind the Poison/Fighting type. It sort of worked, if I focused on him.

"Hm? Ah, that's just Sunflora and Whismur. They were the one who brought that Reviver Seed I gave ya." I tried to picture the pokemon he was describing, and realized that one of them was the one who knocked me out. "Meh-heh-heh, come out you two. You're scaring the kid."

Ever so slowly, I saw two Pokemon come out of the hole in the wall. The same flower one,  even taller than Croagunk,  and a pink one with yellow ears and weird cross eyes, also almost twice as tall as I was. I realized that I'd become really, really small, which was annoying given th at ...  someone, whoever they were, asked me specifically about height . I don't really want to think about that.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so so sorry!" the Sunflora began crying at the same time as the Whismur shouted. "We didn't MEAN TO **HURT YOU**!" and now my ears hurt just as much as my heart did. “You’re not angry at us, right?” Sunflora added again.

"...it's okay... please don't be sad..." I muttered at them, trying to tune out their emotions and finding myself slumping to the ground as I stopped actively focusing on the act of standing up. I really, really would've enjoyed if they stopped being _so fucking sad_ since it was actually reflecting on me being sad as well and I couldn't focus on the happy emotions coming from the other room or Croagunk’s chill with them so damn close.

There was a momentary stretch of silence as I could feel relief emanate from the two of them... and then they cried some more. "THANK YOU FOR FORGIVING US!" they went, though thanks to some quick maneuvering on Croagunk's part I avoided being hugged, though now I was being lifted what might've been just a meter and a half but felt like so much more.

For my part, I was finding this whole sequence thoroughly unpleasant, though I was also too confused to voice my complaints. Croagunk must've still picked up on this though, because he began carrying me away all the same, leaving the two crying Pokémon behind.

“Meh heh heh. For the record, their punishment was your choice on what to give, though I assume that they’re on their way to telling Chatot that you forgave them to try and get out of it. They’re not bad Pokémon though.” I cocked my head to the side. That… sounded unpleasant. "Are we going there?" I pointed to the door where the happy emotions were coming from in lieu of an answer. I _really_ wanted to go there, especially after whatever that was with the other two Pokémon.

For a small breakdown of what I felt... it's hard to describe it, to be honest. I was simply feeling the happiness that came from there, and while it was separate from my own emotions and I was aware of the distinction between them- there was still the rush of serotonin and dopamine that I could feel, and the moods of others are very literally infectious.

"Meh-heh-heh. Sorry kid, but the Guildmaster is busy talking right now. And Chimes wanted to see you." I made a quiet sound of displeasure at that, but I didn't think I actually had any say in the matter right now. Not sure who Chimes is though.

We walked (after I was set down) into a sort of dining room area, where berries of many kinds were being being floated around, sliced by some magical (psychic?) force and put into bowls. A brown, massive (by my standards) beaver-looking pokemon was staring in wonder, and I was inclined to agree (and not just because I was sharing a bit of his own emotions).

I could also feel faint amusement coming from a white, small, circular floating pokemon with a sort of cloth-like looking (Flesh? Skin?) tail trailing under it that ended in red, and a yellow... bell, I think, coming from the top of its head. It had yellow eyes and a smile that I could only describe as derpy.

"Ah, you're finally awake, dear." I suddenly felt _something_ pick me up, though nothing was touching me, as I was lifted into the air much in the same way the berries were. Her amusement changed to something like... if I had to describe it, the emotion that comes immediately upon seeing a rabbit or some other kind of cute animal. "Awww" is my best way to describe it, which was more than a little weird to feel towards _me_. "Are you hungry?"

Right on cue, I felt my stomach rumble. Oh. I might've been more hungry than I first realized. When did I eat that Oran berry? But regardless... "Where are we?" I asked.

"Don't worry about that right now. You're safe." She said, in something that was in between a coo, a reassurance and the tingle of a bell. I was getting a bit annoyed, to be honest, at both the manhandling and nobody telling me anything.

I was floated over to the head of the table, at the position nearest to where the remaining berries that weren't cut up and put into a bowl was. "Just a moment." she said, and I got my first real look at the room.

There were windows out into... the sea, I realized, though it was too dark for me to see much. A small, volcano-looking spring of water was near the entrance, and there was a massive table made to accommodate a lot of people- or rather, Pokémon, though it was rather low and I could reach it easily by standing on a stool. The whole thing was in a cave where roots burst from the ceiling, and plants and flowers came out of the floor. It was all very scenic and very rustic.

Chimecho announced as she floated over and outside of the room, while the Bidoof and the Croagunk took their places at the table, in the middle and staring at one another at ends of the long table. Did it mean that there were specific spots?

"Everyone! Thanks for waiting!" Chimecho called out. "I finished making dinner! ♪ Come on, dinner's on and we have a special guest! ♪"

From the whole building, I felt an explosion of _feeling_ that forced itself in my concentration so strong that my legs gave out. It was hunger, excitement, satisfaction, all sorts of things mixed together. And thus I hid under the table, which barely had any room for me to fit under.

A stampede of pe- _Pokemon_ , arrived at the table, and it began erupting into unintelligible chatter as I stayed hidden and tried to tune out the assault on my brain best I could. Eventually though, I heard a melodious voice that broke through those of the others. "Where is our new friend?"

"Meh-heh-heh. Hiding under the table, Sir." I saw the snout of the Bidoof and the head of a Diglett look and notice me. "Yup yup, he's here." Uh-oh. Ratted out.

Suddenly, without so much of a heave or anything, the table was lifted from one of the ends, revealing...

"Hi, friend! No need to hide!" what I realized, after focusing on him a little, to have been the source of the super happiness that I sensed earlier.

"Hi." I waved, still feeling somewhat sick but feeling better from sheer emotional osmosis as I focused on the Guildmaster himself.

And now, I could see the eyes of the entire Wigglytuff guild on me.

At least it was the better of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.

"Hey!" Wigglytuff waved cheerily back at me.

"Uh- aaaah-" I said as I suddenly began floating again, arriving next to Chimecho, who had "sat" herself next to where my spot was. And by sat I mean float.

...and then Wigglytuff began speaking again, after setting down the table surprisingly gently.

"Ahem!" he cleared his throat. "My friends, today I have an announcement-" He was cut off by a loud rumbling of his own belly. "Ooooh, hungry. Chatot, do we have to make the speech now?" he asked.

There were some hushed words being shared between Wigglytuff and Chatot, though I couldn't hear them. I still felt supremely uncomfortable at being in the presence of so many creatures.

"Ahem! Friends!" Wigglytuff begun again. "Today, we have a new friend who’ll temporarily be staying here at the guild." he pointed at me. "We found Ralts here in a dungeon. Our hope is that this is all a giant misunderstanding, but..." his lip trembled a little, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. "Being left alone is a very sad thing. So, everyone... at least for now, our guild will have a guest!" Wigglytuff went back to cheery. "While it may not be under the best of circumstances, let's all make sure to help Ralts feel welcome!" his paw went in the air in a sort of fist pump.

And then the guild exploded into cheers and "Yeah!"s, and I found myself inadvertently cheering along, even through my annoyance at being essentially reduced to being told what to do.

But the cheers were cut off by the rumbling of everyone's stomach in unison. There was a weird moment of silence, before Chatot stepped forward, raising a wing. "And now, we eat!"

The guild exploded into way louder "YEAH!"s at that, as we began dining.

The situation escalated quickly.

* * *

**Crunch-munch! Chew-chew! Snuffle-slurp!**

* * *

For all that I felt myself slipping into the guild's good cheer and my unconscious... something, (I probably should've realized sooner that Ralts were spontaneous empaths, but for some reason the realization came to me like "Ah". I'd been doing it for all this time now, why should I be surprised?) I forced myself to think about what the situation was.

For all I knew, I could be the human that needs to save the future... at the expense of their own life. But it feels wrong, mostly because of the circumstances regarding my situation. First of all, the fact that I was born. Eugh.

Chimecho using Psychic to dunk me in the sea and wipe the gunk off of me was _not_ appreciated, even though I was given appropriate warning and was at no risk of drowning. Especially when I saw two glowing yellow things, only to later realize those were Lanturns.

I have no idea where the guild actually found me, which I assume must've been a dungeon rather than some random ass cave I'd thought before. And the ones who found me...

Sunflora and Whismur. There was also this little detail. As of right now, the guild's Loudred was not yet a thing. However, it can't be too far off, since Bidoof is here and he was the last before... two generic world saviors whose species is yet to be determined.

There's that problem too. I could befriend the Relic Fragment's carrier, but that could jeopardize the whole future. I could jeopardize the whole future, though I hope there's little chance of that.

Also, the human. I definitely want in on his circle of friends, assuming that they are not me. Though I'm completely scared of the idea of them touching me and causing a dimensional scream. That sounds like something that would happen.

Also, about Sunflora...

Well, I was rooming with her. Or specifically, I was rooming with Chimecho because by some unspoken (or spoken while I was unconscious) agreement, she became my sort of caretaker. I turned to look at the sunflower, though I couldn't see much from outside the window.

Yes, I was left outside the window to dry up after I was then dunked with a bucket of non-salty water. I'm not sure if I appreciate it. Chimecho seems sure enough in her psychic grip and Sharpedo Bluff's weather was mild enough that it wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but manhandling was manhandling. Pokémonhandling?

I sighed. I was now full, and the lull of the wind was kind of nice, but I wasn't tired after having woken up only less than an hour ago and it was pretty cold, for all of the mild weather Treasure Town seemed to boast. What season was it even? Did the Pokémon world get seasons?

So many questions that I couldn’t even ask.

Sunflora was looking... alright, if slightly uncomfortable. She seemed to wilt (hehe) a little under Chimecho's gaze.

And then I was flying back into the window, not of my own volition, and was let back on the ground. This time, I only wobbled instead of falling to the floor, managing to remember about focusing on walking. That was also weird, but I had found no answers for the fact that I'd suddenly feel weak as shit if I didn't focus on a given task. It was kind of aggravating.

"There. Feel better? ♪" Chimeco asked me, smiling widely. And derpily.

I  glared a little at her ,  before turning to look for a moment towards Sunflora... and how uncomfortable she was.

I was not one to help others much. That part of my character hasn't really changed with my... metamorphosis. However, I was now being kind of forced to try and make sure that others were fine, since their feelings were forced at the center of my attention.

"Hey?" It was funny that I was the one that was always most disarmed by my voice, given the titular move. I kept expecting a somewhat deep thing, not particularly but definitely not a pitch so high I could break glass. I’m pretty sure I could do that even without exerting myself.

"Oh gosh!" Sunflora was somehow startled by my presence, despite me literally having walked up to her. "I mean- he-hey!" she laughed nervously.

"Why are you sad?" I asked her somewhat bluntly. It was the same sensation as before, but I thought they'd been alright now with the fact that they'd been forgiven.

"Ah- oh my gosh, am I that transparent?" She said, bringing her two "hands" to her face. "Urgh..." she muttered.

"I'd told you so. ♪" Chimecho trilled smugly.

"Chimechoooo." Sunflora whined. "Oh my gosh, how do I explain this... I messed up." She said.

"Because you shot me?" I asked. The wince I received in return was only half-satisfactory, since i felt it too. Damn it. I couldn’t even sass people.

"Well, that's only part of it. We had to rush to get you here, and... I may have accidentally destroyed the Marowak Dojo." she muttered, shame that I wasn't feeling creeping into my brain. "Whismur wanted to prove himself against dragon-type enemies before his evolution, and now I've gone and messed that up." tears were starting to form at the corners of her "eyes".

I was stunned. Fuck- alright, Loudred was not THAT important, but butterfly warning! Butterfly warning!

Fuck, I've gone and messed it up already, I'm such a fffffffff-

Defuse. Defuse. This shame isn't my own.

I tentatively went to hug the flower, despite the awkwardness of it. "It's okay. You didn't mean it." I said, kinda hugging the Pokémon that was so much bigger than I was.

I felt my grip slacken for a moment from having to process the influx of emotions that emanated from her point blank- surprise, awkwardness, even more shame, and a tiny bit of hopefulness. I forced myself to power through that.

Eventually, she hugged me back, and her emotions stabilized into a nice feeling of hope mixed with slight worry, which was sorta better than before. "You're right." she told me. "I'll go apologize some more to Whismur tomorrow, and then we'll find some other way to kick dragon butt."

Suddenly, I was lifted off the floor from the surprisingly strong grip of a flower as another sensation came, a faint sense of amusement. "Oh my gosh, you're so cute. I'm kinda glad I shot you now, you know?" she joked.

...wow. WOW. I know she didn’t mean it that way, but man, you can hear CPS coming all the way from here two floors into the ground. PPS? Pokè Protective Services?

"I'm not. When you people come back home with injuries, it's up to me and Togepi to heal you up, let alone when you bring outsiders..." Chimecho interrupted. "That was a really touching moment, but I do believe it is time for sleep, right?" she smiled.

"Togepi?" I asked. I... didn't remember a Togepi? 

"An apprentice of the Guild, though she rarely stops by, which makes my job even harder." though she didn't do it, I could feel the idea of an eyeroll pop up in her mind. "Anyways, sleep. Chop chop." 

"You're right..." Sunflora grumbled. "Oh my gosh, we could take you to see Treasure Town tomorrow!" she said. "It'll also help with any gossip that I'm a kidnapper..." she continued sheepishly.

“You did kidnap me though.” I rubbed it in a little.

“Nooo, don’t say that!” it was worth to feel her embarassment. “Definitely don’t say that when we go out tomorrow!”

"That sounds like a plan." Chimecho said, taking me and putting me on a straw bed. Kinda uncomfortable.

"I'm not sleepy though." I told her.

"I sure am-" her voice was cut off with a loud yawn, which was made kind of funny by a bell *ding* at the end.

"Okay." I told her back, not sure why that was relevant. I was used to spending nights up, and-

"Hgwaaaah." it was like hearing a baby goat yawn, except it was from my throat. "Oh. Did you-" but then Mr. Darkrai arrived (not literally), and with that my consciousness left.

* * *

**Omake:** In which Chimecho wasn’t quite joking when she asked if Ralts was for dinner.

**Canon Level: Evil Derpy Face** (1/10)

“Are you sure it was alright to use Yawn on him, Chimecho?” Sunflora asked. Sure, her friend had used Psychic all the while to carry the Ralts, but it wasn’t quite the same thing.

“Well, how else would we have him stay still?” Chimecho asked as suddenly rushing in the room were a series of knives.

“Wha-what?!” she gasped.

“It’s been a long while since I tasted Pokémon flesh…” she said, slurping at her own saliva dribbling out of her mouth as she showed far more teeth than Sunflora ever knew she had.

“Chimecho, what are you saying!” the Grass Pokémon tried to shake her friend out of her bloodlust, but the Psychic type was well and truly insane.

“Come on, Sunflora. Do you not also hunger? Did Chatot not send you to bed without dinner?!” she shouted.

“Y-yes, but- that is no excuse to eat babies!”

“ARE YOU CALLING ME A COMMUNIST?!” Chimecho roared.

“I’m calling you a cannibal!” Sunflora shouted back.

“Oh. Hehe, that is alright. I’m not willing to share though.” she said, lifting the body of the sleeping Ralts. “It’s been… so long since I’ve tasted flesh… did you know, Sunflora? Before I came to the guild, that’s when it was… I was a feral back then, struggling to survive in Drenched Bluff…” the Wind Chime Pokèmon hissed. “BUT NOW! NOW I HUNGER!”

“Chimecho, you’re scaring me… aaaaaaah!” Sunflora rushed out of the room, leaving Chimecho to her prey.

“Good… now, you’re all mine… all…” she smiled, her usual derpy smile, as the knives began edging closer to his skull. “We’re gonna have to cut out that crystal… I’ve never had Ralts, I wonder how deep this goes?” she said, examining the red protrusions. “Only one way-”  
  


“Yatta!” Sunflora rushed back into the room, wielding a bucket of water and completely soaking Chimecho with it. “Oh my gosh, Chimecho, get back to your senses!”

“...oh dear.” all of the knives cluttered back to the floor. “I think I’ll go back to sleep now too. Thank you Sunflora.” she said, and promptly crashed on her own bed after having gently lowered the unaware Ralts back in his straw bed.

Sunflora huffed and puffed, looking out of the window. The moon was almost full in the sky, it was a close call.

Only she, out of the whole guild, knew that her friend was in fact a Weremon.

She had since learned to sleep with one eye closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fluff chapter! In which we find out exactly where our Protagonist was, though it only leads to more mysteries, and *when* he is remains a mistery. Also, Ralts is a precious baby that must be protected according to everyone that isn't himself, and every single individual in the guild is utterly adorable to write. 
> 
> I tricked you with the tags! It's not Loudred, it's Whismur! Aha! 
> 
> We still die like men, with me betaing my own chapters.
> 
> Thank you all still for all of your kind reviews! 
> 
> EDIT: Apparently I'd put the notes for the first chapter as notes for the entire work. Whoops? Lesson learned, I suppose. Sorry for any mayhem experienced by anyone who saw within the first 5 minutes.


	3. Treasure Town Troublemaking! (Part 1)

_ "That was easy.” _

_ "Did you expect any substantial difficulty from a gathering mission?" replied Dusknoir.  _

_ His partner scoffed. "Any kind of mission has the potential to be difficult. Though... I guess things are going to be way easier to do now that we're here, huh?" _

_ "Mhm," offered the Gripper Pokémon, and it was clear he did not want to speak any longer. "Do not relax yet. We cannot afford to let those two get away with their schemes." _

_ "I know." The other grimaced. "But-" However, he interrupted himself when they entered the mayor's house. "We're here!" he called out. _

_ Very fast, a very small, lizard-shaped pokemon skittered up to them. "Do you have them?!" it asked in an impatient shriek typical of its species. _

_ "Yes we do," said the humanoid one, amused. "My loyal traveling companion and walking pouch, if you will?" _

_ The ghost type huffed, annoyed at his teammate's behavior, but ultimately reached into his own stomach and pulled out what had to be over 20 apples. _

_ "Thank you!" The lizard shrieked, and stood on its hind legs to look better at them. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! Oh, what would I have done without my dear Perfect Apples..." _

_ The more talkative of the two replied. "Ms. Mayor, you are a fully evolved Pokémon in your own right. I am sure that you could’ve gotten a few yourself." _

_ "Dearie, I am old and ripe. I can't go out into dungeons like I used to." She sighed. "But I can't wait anymore, time to dig in!" And she proceeded to literally dig her way into the apple, a process that was in equal parts weird and fascinating. A few seconds later, the apple opened up, and the lizard from before began flying on apple-made wings. _

_ "I'm still unsure why did we have to interrupt our searches to aide mayor Flapple. Do you not take our time’s worth seriously?" Dusknoir rumbled gravely. _

_ "Oh, suck it up, I'm actually doing something for us." his partner muttered. "Ms. Mayor, you'll tell other people of our deeds as we agreed, right?" _

_ " _ **_Perfect Apple_ ** _... I-uh, yes, of course!" she replied. "I couldn't be thankful enough for you, anything you need! What do you call yourselves...?" _

_ "See Dusknoir? If we've a reputation to build up, we gotta help the people too." He turned back towards the Flapple. "And we are Team Clockwork, because our teamwork is flawless, remember it!" _

_ "That is a horrible name," muttered Dusknoir. _

_ "But it fits perfectly, wouldn't you say?" the other replied. _

* * *

I blearily opened my eyes, finding myself curled up on a bed of soft straw.

...what?

The rest of my vision was just mint green, and I laid there frozen for a few minutes, confused about what was going on, until the events of yesterday came back into focus.

Oh. Reaching out to touch my forehead, I felt the stiff but sensitive horn poking out of it.

...this was real, huh.

I stood up, trying to make as little noise as possible. I could feel emotions from the two Pokemon still asleep near me, but I also felt... uncertainty coming from the hole in the wall that connected this room to the rest of the guild.

And a little bit of panic when I began standing up.

Turning around to face whoever it was, I saw the plush-looking pink pokemon staring at me.

"Hi, Whismur." I waved a little.

"Oh, you're AWAKE!" it whisper-shouted, ending in a slightly-loud volume. Still not enough to wake the others up though. "I'll, uh... you wake them up then, alright?" I tilted my head. Was it not his job?

Did people really feel  _ this _ self conscious around me?

...Chimecho certainly didn't, I guess.

"I could hear you shout at others from here." I said. "I'll... just leave, and then you can wake them up?" I counteroffered.

Without waiting for him to answer, I exited from there. I needed time to think for myself.

Mainly, how was I going to play this?

It felt awful to lie to people about who I was, but what else was I going to do? Tell everyone "Uh, actually I'm a human and please do not treat me like a child despite being literally 2 days old"?

That would... undoubtedly change things. Probably for the worse.

"Meh-heh-heh. What's got your mind in a tizzy, Ralts?" I was startled out of my thoughts by Croagunk to my left.

I'd... just kind of assumed that I could now feel everyone around me, and that *was* the case, but it was the same as trying to actively notice the fact that your nose is in front of your face.

...I don't have a nose anymore.

I just stared at the poison-fighting type. And then, since I needed to say something... "I'm Nate."

It was the first time someone actually referred to me, while talking to me, with my species name. I... didn't really like that.

Croagunk produced a questioning sound at that, but I was already onto my next destination.

The ladder.

Momentarily having to close my ears when Whismur's shout of "UP AND AT 'EM, GIRLS!" came out from the room of the guild where I'd slept in.

Anyways, ladder.

...how do I climb a ladder?

I don't have hands. I could sort of flex the 3 stiff fingers on my hand, but

But that is not going to stop me.

With a huff, I began trying to climb the ladder regardless. Thankfully, it was made so that small Pokémon could still use it without issue, but it was still a workout and a half.

After the fourth or so step, it occurred to me that I wasn't thinking on how to climb a ladder. And... perhaps, since I was a psychic type Pokémon.

Closing my eyes for a moment, I just... thought. Of the movements involved with climbing a ladder. And I willed my body to them.

The next few steps came to me without issue, as though I was weightless.

Despite it being such a small thing as... well, climbing a stair, I still felt elation about it. Go me!

...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

The bout of elation had cost me my focus, and with my body no longer relying on the psychic powers, I just... dropped.

And for someone who is a foot tall, the fall from what was more or less one and a half meters was absolutely terrifying.

Please please please please-

Pain radiated in my head as I felt a tug on my body slowing down my fall, and I opened my eyes to see myself levitating centimeters off the floor for a split second before thumping down.

Ow ow ow ow. My head...

"Are you OKAY!" shouted Whismur, and I whimpered. My head was already pulsing in pain, why did he shout like that...?

"Meh-heh-heh. It's fine. I saw him stop himself right as he was about to impact," commented Croagunk.

"Hmm. I guess it'll be a lesson learned about not sneaking off then. ♪" replied Chimecho, sounding smug.

It took me a moment to realize what was going on, before understanding finally what they'd said. I'd basically traded the likely pain from the fall with a killer headache from straining my psychic powers. Or something.

...right now, I'm not sure which would've been better.

"Still, we ought to clear the space. We're going to disrupt the roll call otherwise," said Chimecho, and I was once again lifted by a psychic force and put back on my feet.

Slowly, Pokemon began to trickle down into the deepest floor of the guild that we were on, standing in front of the Guildmaster's door, which had... what could be either interpreted as the tuft of hair on Wigglytuff's head, or a muscle flexing, depending which way you squinted.

Croagunk, Chimecho, Whismur and Sunflora- and Bidoof, which I hadn't seen or even heard arrive, had already taken their places, while Corphish slowly and carefully climbed down the stairs with a "Hey-hey! How are you guys feeling today?" The group responded with greetings of varying cheer.

I was perhaps a bit more interested though at the emotions that were emanating from the ground itself. Wistfulness mixed with... what I could only describe as a sense of  _ duty _ , and from another source a more relatable wish for more sleep and bleariness.

And then penises being springing from the ground.

...alright, that was really immature of me, if somewhat true.

From the ground burst forth four... fallic-shaped brown fuzzy creatures, with beady black eyes and thin eyebrows, but a comically large round pink nose. Three of them were clumped together in the formation known as Dugtrio, whose emotions I realized were just an individual's worth, rather than tree. Next to him, there was Diglett instead.

"Guildmaster! ♪ Everyone has arrived! ♪" Chatot trilled at the doors, which eventually open as the huge, pink form of Wigglytuff walked out.

He was looking completely normal, but his emotions revealed a state of joy and elation that put a grin on my face. This was so cool!

"...Zzzzz... Snorf...." The guildmaster snore loudly. The guild apprentices broke out in whispers. 

"Wow, talk about a heavy sleeper." 

"His eyes are open!"

"Oh my gosh, that's amazing!" 

"I envy the guildmaster, yup-yup."

If this were an anime, I imagine Chatot would've sweatdropped. But only feathers there, no comically large drop of water. "The guildmaster has not caught a wink of sleep tonight, being hard at work for the sake of the guild! ♪ To repay him for the work that he puts in for us every day, let us be productive as ever today! ♪"

I wonder what Wigglytuff is dreaming about.

I could feel my stomach rumble. Probably Perfect Apples.

"However, even with the Guildmaster like this, let us not skip out on our morning cheers! ♪" Chatot hollered.

"And a-one, a-two, a-one, two, three!" The rest of the guild began, and I found myself joining in. "One! Don't shirk work! Two! Run away and pay! Three! Smiles go for miles!" I only got a mild stab of pain in my head for that. Ow. No more morning cheers.

Chatot beamed in pride at that. "Ok Pokémon! Let's get to work!"

And with that, the formation broke off as everyone was off to do their own thing, except for... Whismur, Sunflora, Chimecho, and Chatot, though Chimecho quickly went up to Sunflora. "Don't let Ralts out of your sight, okay? ♪"

"Yes ma'am," she replied, and I could feel... the mental equivalent of a pat on the head as Chimecho left to do her own thing as well. It felt kinda nice on my headache.

I stared at the retreating sight of the Chimecho, before turning around to face Sunflora. "Well then, let's go!" cheered Sunflora.

My second attempt at climbing up the stairs was decidedly more successful, if only because I was focusing on climbing them like my life depended on it.

...and because Sunflora was helping me by sprouting vines.

And with that, we'd climbed out of the cave in the promontory that held the Wigglytuff Guild. Once we were out, I turned around to stare at the giant tent with the Wigglytuff head on it.

It was... I was fond of the Guildmaster, especially since he was a walking happiness beacon, but this thing was outright creepy. Next to it were coal racks, and totems with Pokémon faces.

"What are those about?" I asked. I quickly checked out the faces. One of the totems had an Aipom, a Duskull, and a Zigzagoon. On the other, a Hoothoot, an Anorith and a Noctowl.

"They're former APPRENTICES OF THE guild," boomed Whismur. "Team ONLOOKERS AND TEAM Collectors. They left AFTER GRADUATION."

"Oh my gosh! I didn't know that!" Sunflora gasped. Neither did I. "How'd you learn all this?" She poked Whismur.

"Well, unlike you I DON'T HAVE MY HEAD IN THE CLOUDS." 

The two continued to bicker as I was led down the stairs. I almost tripped but Sunflora grabbed me and stopped me from falling.

A gown made of your own skin was not the best for walking down stairs.

I could already begin to see the various stalls and tents that made up Treasure Town. It had nothing on human towns by a long shot, but it was... nice.

"This is the watering hole." I turned around to stare at a well covered by wooden planks to prevent the sun from reaching it. "It's arguably the most important feature of Treasure Town. Very good for self reflection." Sunflora giggled, covering her mouth with a leaf. At that, Whismur huffed a bark of very loud laughter, and soon, the two were bent over laughing.

I just stared at them, wondering what prompted this. It felt like some sort of inside joke, but the two of them were basically incapacitated with laughter. I eventually turned to the watering hole.

I... it was the first time I got an actual look at myself. Big,  _ red _ eyes stared back at me, half-hidden under green hair put in a bowl cut. At the center of my forehead, a big, red crystal that made it look like I'd been speared through the head. Completely white face, no nose or other features besides a small mouth.

For a moment, the image of a glasses wearing teenager with brown hair and eyes with an uneasy smile substituted that. I felt tears prick at the corners of my eyes. What if I had no way of returning home? Maybe if I asked really nicely to Palkia I could just hop dimensions. Yeah, right.

The protagonist was pretty lucky to not have his memories.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" Sunflora was behind me and I gave a half start as I stopped reminiscing. I had a moment of my brain going "Nate.exe has stopped working", before I could think up a convincing lie.

"I don't get it," I muttered as sullenly and childishly as I could manage. 

Sunflora's expression of worry cracked for a moment as she looked like she was about to laugh, and she covered another giggle with her hand. Leaf. Thing. "Don't worry, you'll get it eventually. But for now, there's so much more of Treasure town to see!"

I began following them as they began bringing me westward.

Walking through Treasure Town made me realize the oddity of it all. It wasn't quite a town in the sense that I'd been used to, more of a collection of strewn about tents and stalls located on this sandy territory.

It was nice, but "Town" meant something else entirely to me. I'd be more inclined to call this "Treasure Village", not that I had a say in it.

I also had to wonder who exactly built a lot of these places, since a lot of Pokémon lacked hands. Food for thought for later for four-

Sunflora began explaining to me about the Duskull bank and waving at Duskull, who cheerily waved back with a "Hee-hee" that would make Micheal Jackson proud. Something occurred to me though. "Is that the Duskull from... uh..." what was it again? "Team Onlookers?"

"Team Collectors. And yes," whispered Whismur.

"Huh." I guess that's that.

From him, oddly enough, I couldn't feel anything. No emotions, no feeling... I was growing way more accustomed to this sixth sense than I'd imagined. It gave me the chills that suddenly someone sat out of its range.

Suddenly, however, I was taken aback as a huge brown and yellow bird- a Pidgey flew way too close to my face, and kept flapping. "Hey! Who are you?"

"I-" I began, but suddenly I was interrupted by someone else.

"Yo, squirt!" Suddenly a massive sloth-looking creature jumped at high speed towards us, landing in front of me and staring at me with a teeth-filled grin. "Ya were the one being carted around by Sunflora yesterday, right? What's up with that?!" asked Vigoroth.

"Well-" began Sunflora, but she was interrupted herself.

I looked around in a daze, I saw a walking acorn slightly bigger than me walking towards me. Seedot. "Sorry for my teammate's behavior. Who are you?"

"What is going on here?" I saw Vigoroth violently shudder as suddenly out of his chest appeared a black shape with glowing yellow eyes that smiled creepily. "Aren't you the one that came out of the Marowak Dojo?" came asking a Shuppet.

Suddenly, Pokémon from all sides began walking into the main square.

It was suffocating. While a lot of them were keeping their distance, to my senses they might as well have been crushing me between them all. I tried to tune out all of their feelings and in general the sound that they were making, only for more to arrive.

I wanted out. And I wanted it right now. As I felt the headache and anxiety that was arriving to a breaking point, I heard a shrill scream tear its way out of my throat, and suddenly, there was nothing.

I breathed hard as I opened my eyes again, trying to gather my bearings. I was no longer in the Treasure Town square, or anywhere familiar.

The walls of a tent greeted me as I sat on a straw bed, looking at a crate containing a few belongings that were apples, oran berries, and other thingamabobs.

I could still feel the crowd’s chatter as a distant echo, but way further than it was before, and I definitely didn't want to go out and face it. I also had a huge headache, that came both from the earlier events, but also the psychic energy usage...

...heh. Ralts in the games were hard to catch for a reason, I guess.

I think this was someone's house. A fact that, perhaps, is further evidenced by the flaps of the tent opening up.

"Man, I knew I should've gone there faster... whatever happened was already over when I got there," said a small, cute voice before we both froze when we locked eyes.

...one thing at a time. In front of me was a pokemon that looked kind of fox-ish, with soft brown fur, long ears, and huge black eyes. It had a puffy collar of white-beige fur, and an equally puffy tail that looked like a paintbrush, with a reverse heart pattern on it. Clutched loosely in said tail was a stone with a design with circular patterns broken by wing-looking inscriptions. That alone made me freeze.

Because I could recognize the pattern. Right here, in front of me, this Eevee was holding the Relic Fragment in its tail.

* * *

**Omake:**

**Canon Level: Like Clockwork (7/10)** You ever want a name for an online game and find it's already been taken?

“CONFUSION.” The steel type shouted, approaching the front desk with a rapid click of its gears. “IDENTITY OF NAME THIEVES?”

Click-Click-Click-ClickClickClickClick.

“OUR COMPANION IS OUTRAGED AS WELL.” the other steel type added.

“Just because someone registered the team name before you did doesn’t mean that they are name thieves…” Leavanny, the Conkeldurr guild representant, sighed. “Gothorita, be a do-” he gulped at the glare that the Psychic type Pokémon levelled her with. “I-I mean, please check to see who claimed the name Team Clockwork.”

“ARE. THEY. STEEL. TYPE?” the Klang pressed.

“Y-yeah, check if they’re steel types.” Leavanny sighed.

Gothorita began meditating, and soon the telltale blue glow of psychic types surrounded her.

Leavanny turned to stare at the dress he was making, right before they came up to his desk. Ruined.

“Other right-hand-men don’t have to deal with these kinds of things… I need a Plain Seed…” he muttered sullenly.

Looking back up, he could hear the three Pokémon stressing each second by clicking, not even being in tune with one another, and that was driving him crazy. Seconds, then minutes that seemed like an eternity passed in deep silence except for the Pokémon’s clicking.

“No steel types on the team, no.” Gothorita said, glancing at them with a complete lack of interest before turning back again towards her work with a huff.

ClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClick-ClickClick-ClickClick-ClickClick-ClickClick-

“THIS. IS. A. SCANDAL.” Klang said.

“OUTRAGEOUS.” Klink added.

ClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClick.

“NO. OROLOGY IS AN AWFUL TEAM NAME.” Klang protested.

ClickClickClickClickClick.

“Why me…?” Leavanny sobbed. Why did he have to deal with a team of a Kling, Klang, and Magearna?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter is a bit shorter than intended as a result of coming out WAY longer than intended. I thus decided to divide it into two in order to make it more easily digestible.
> 
> Also, this was beta'd by the awesome MinccinoBestMon!


	4. Treasure Town Trouble(r)making! (Part 2)

"You!" she shouted, getting up in my personal space in an instant. Mistrust and wariness came off of her in waves. "Are you an outlaw? Why were you being brought into the Guild yesterday?" She was looking (and sniffing) at me from all possible angles. "Why are you in my house?! I'll let you know that I'm a proud member of the Wigglytuff Guild, and I'll arrest you if you make one wrong move,” she said, puffing herself up, trying to intimidate me.

"...why weren't you at the roll call yesterday then?" I tried to make myself sound innocent. Which I was. Like, for real. "Were you busy?"

"...eeeeeh?" She tilted her head. "Are you trying to trick me?"

"...no? I was brought there yesterday because I was knocked out in a dungeon." I felt like leaving out the fact that I was knocked out by a guild member. "Who are you?" This was another thing that occurred to me. So far, everyone had called each other by their species' name, but... what if there's two of the same Pokemon?

"I'm Eevee. Have you never seen one before? Are you new around town?" pressed Eevee.

...well, technically no, so... I shook my head. "I'm Nate. New... in general."

Suddenly, something seemed to click for her, and her faced screwed up fierce. "Saaaaay... how did you find the guild? Everyone on the up and up?" She felt... embarrassed. After a moment, it clicked to me that she was lying.

...fuck. If I tell her the guild's nice, she might join it without the protagonist. If I tell her it's bad, she might not join at all.

"...They're really nice." I muttered lastly. Ultimately, I didn't want to risk anything to happen that might alter events. If she joined the guild alone, I could go and catch the protagonist myself, probably. Fish them from the shore or something. "I was welcomed with open arms once since I had nowhere else to go."

"Really?!" She'd jumped, once again, very close to me, reeking of excitement. "I mean... of course." She puffed up. Her bravado did not match the air of nervousness that exuded. I resisted the urge to pet her. Her acting was adorably bad. "What did you do there?"

"Well, not much. I-" However, her words were cut off with a shout of " **RALTS** !" coming from outside, courtesy of Whismur. I looked outside, for a moment, before looking back to Eevee.

"Huh. Do you know who Ralts is? Sounds like someone is looking for them," said Eevee, poking her head outside.

...oh. Right, I'd introduced myself as Nate.

Feeling slightly vindictive and not wishing to return to the guild yet, I tilted my head to the side. "Nope." My eyes fell back on the Relic Fragment, which had now been put on the ground, and she was brushing with her tail.

"What's-"

Much closer, another shout of "Ralts!" broke the relative silence that was the outside. We turned for a moment to stare at the tent flap, before she turned back to me. "You were saying?"

"Uh... nothing. I think I gotta go now," I muttered. I felt fueled by an odd mischief, and I wanted to go somewhere more hidden from the guild members. "See ya!"

Despite a mutter of "Aww, okay." I stepped out of the tent, which was... a quick look around myself revealed that I was very close to the beach, and slightly south of the town.

I ran down the steps- tumbled down the steps, making a mess of myself, ouch. This time I had no one to save me from my tangly legs.

I stood for a moment with my forehead to the ground before getting up on shaky limbs. I could do this. Do what, exactly, I had no idea, but I just wanted to get some peace for myself.

Finding my way to the beach, I wanted to try something now that I was on softer ground. I began trying to walk, but without having to actually  _ focus  _ on walking. I'd come to realize that my limbs seemed stronger when I actively thought about something, but I still wanted to try to walk normally. And I was kind of hating my psychic abilities, given what they'd done to me already… and just generally being used to being able-bodied.

Predictably, I fell over, face first in the sand as soon as I let up on the telekinetic pull. I tried to push myself up, but I realized that it was a little too easy, and I tried to push myself up... without pushing myself up. It wasn't working, at all.

"Hmm. You are putting a lot of effort into trying to make things as difficult for yourself.,” said a shrill, old-sounding voice behind me. I lifted my head to see whom it was, and I found a very, very tall green humanoidish-bird creature, a Xatu, staring at me.

I opened my mouth to reply, but nothing came to mind on what to say.

"Your eyes tell me that you think that this is how things are supposed to be." He tilted his head, in a bird-like fashion. Which... he was a bird, he could do that I guess. "Why would you cripple yourself so?"

I said nothing. I didn't know what to say, to be honest, except rolling over sullenly laying down in the sand, face up.

"People are looking for you, you know. Chimecho, in particular, is being very insistent that I at least make an effort to look for your psychic trace." Amusement bled into his voice, but I couldn't really tell what he was feeling. It wasn't like a Ghost type Pokémon, whose emotions just weren’t there, but more like... a wall.

You couldn't really obtain much information from a wall.

"You are restless. Your whole world has been flipped upside down, and now you're trying to gain back something that was once yours." I raised up my head to stare at him, eyes wide, but he was simply staring off into the distance. "These are, of course, all curious feelings to glean from what I have been told is a one day old creature." He cocked his head again. "You should definitely keep a better lid on your emotions. While not many Pokémon, even among the psychic type, possess the kind of abilities that we do, it is definitely possible to feel something strange and different about you."

Once again, I tried to get up, but without working on my psychic ability. It seemed fruitless, and I really felt like the baby (that I was) trying to stand up and walk.

"Hm. Do you wish to hear a story?" I said nothing, but he still seemed to take that as an answer. 

"A long time ago, I had a friend. He was a Machop. He did not live here, but it was a very similar place, a cliff overlooking the sea.

"And since he lived in such a place and I was on the other side of a gulf, whenever I came visiting him, I would fly all the way over there, and he would always be there to greet me. And when I had to leave, he would see me off as I flew down the cliff and off to my own place.

"This continued for a long while. Until one day, we were still young, he jumped down with me as I was leaving. It left me very amused as he fished himself out of the sea, and he was alright, though his ego was bruised.

"I didn't see it coming that the next time it would happen again. Or the time after, for that matter. I talked with his family, and apparently he did it all the time, because he wanted to fly like me and get to see my house.

"'But Machoke', I'd told him, as he'd already evolved by that time. 'You cannot fly!' In hindsight, knowing his prideful nature, perhaps I should not have told him so.

"He continued. He even crafted himself a pair of wings, and tried to flap them. They even worked slightly, but he was never able to uphold flight for long. His leaps off the cliff became ever longer, and he flapped always better, but he never could really fly.

"His family was distraught. Flying had become an obsession for him, to the point where it was the only thing he thought about. We talked less and less as time went on, and I could not bear to see my friend do this to himself.

"Eventually, I told him I'd stop returning if this obsession of his didn't stop. He seemed to take this as yet another challenge and told me that he'd just have to fly over to me then.

"I never did see Machamp again." He sighed. "He did not seem able to understand the reality of his situation, and his family told me he ended up drowning after going too far and tiring himself too much. He never knew how to swim, which would've been a far easier way of reaching my home here.

"Too consumed by his wanting to fly, that he could not see that he never needed to." I sat there, pondering about what he said. It left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

And then that bitter taste was replaced with salty seawater. I spluttered and coughed my lungs out when a slightly stronger wave came towards me, drenching me in seawater. I could hear the tittering of a Lanturn as I gasped.

"Well, it appears at least one lesson was learned today." Xatu tittered, though now that I looked at him better, he never opened his mouth. The sound was instead resonating within my mind. "'I do believe you've caused enough mayhem for now, yes?"

"...yeah..." I grouched, standing up and grimacing as all of the sand clung to me. Another splash from that Lanturn had most of it get peeled off, though I almost fell over as it tittered again and left.

"Then let us get you back to your home. However, I would not mind a visit every once in a while, as I am sure you have a lot to share and more to learn. Though I must warn you that I will soon leave for a voyage of my own, and will be returning in a while."

And with that, I trailed after the Psychic/Flying type Pokemon, using my psychic powers to aid my legs, with a wisdom imparted that I still had yet to fully understand.

I did, however, find myself glancing towards the cave entrance that was on the beach. I didn't get close to it, but right now I found something churning into my stomach. I wasn't sure what that was though.

Xatu turned to stare at me with his creepy eyes, and I hurried to keep pace.

* * *

Chimecho was feeling conflicted.

On one paw (a saying she had adopted even though her paws were vestigial at this point), she had been introduced to young Ralts for exactly one day.

'Mons always liked to tease her that she was the guild mom, which just wasn't true. Sure, she made sure everyone was healthy, made the meals for everyone, tended to the the pantry's stock, stayed inside in case the guild needed to be notified through the telepath network, but-

Anyways, the point was that, despite having met for a short amount of time, Chimecho was worried about Ralts. He'd risked becoming a feral, though it was still possible that he had feral tendencies remaining from his time in the Mystery Dungeon, and no Pokémon should go without a family. She'd seen the amount of growth he'd undergone through the night, the quickness of it signifying at least some fighting. Everyone seemed to forget that despite being managed by Marowak, the Dojo was a series of full-fledged dungeons, tamed as they might have been.

Even before Ralts, she always entertained the idea to herself of helping out Pokémon from dungeons. There’d been tales of sentient Pokémon that lost themselves to the madness of the dungeons, and even rumors of feral Pokémon gaining some degree of intelligence. The amount of tasks set up for her by the guild had kept her entertained for a while, though she was beginning to feel a sense of longing once again.

She paused for a moment, reminiscing about Drenched Bluff, before shuddering violently enough that Croagunk seemed to take notice.

"Meh-heh-heh. What's got you all knotted up, Chimes?" She paused for a moment to check, but she had apparently not actually knotted herself up. Whew. That would've been a disaster.

"I am fine, Croagunk. I was just thinking about discussing something with the Guildmaster..." muttered Chimecho, running the logistics of the thought in her head more and more. Obviously ferals who retained a shard of their mind were rare, but-

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh-" Sunflora came barging in, climbing down the stairs to reach the bottom floor.

...without Ralts.

Her thoughts came to a crashing halt as she processed that piece of information.

"We lost Ralts!" cried Sunflora.

"You... lost him." Chimecho found herself floating up to Sunflora, staring directly into her eyes.

"Yeah, we-" Sunflora gulped. "-were talking to Duskull, and suddenly Pokémon came swarming, wanting to know about the latest scoop as usual, and things got a bit crowded, and right as I caught a glimpse of him I saw that he was holding his head and suddenly he disappeared!"

"..." Chimecho took a carefully silent for a moment as she absorbed what was said. "You said he just disappeared? You didn't lose sight of him?"

"N-no!" Sunflora yelped. "I wouldn't do that!"

...so he could Teleport. That was... troubling. It took the blame off of Sunflora a little, which made it easier to quell the urge to blast her with Psychic.

"I'm going to contact someone. Go back to searching for him," said Chimecho, taking her best choice at being intimidating. She was rusty, but she could still pull off a Mean Look.

"Y-yes ma'am!" And off was Sunflora again.

Now, to contact the psychic Pokémon in town...

The idea for an Assembly for feral 'mons she wanted to pitch to Chatot would have to wait.

* * *

As it turned out, Xatu held enough swagger around Treasure Town that nobody approached us when we eventually made our way there. It helped that from the beach to the guild we did not pass through the main square.

I turned around to stare at him. "...you're typically not as talkative as you were back on the beach, are you?" I asked as we paused in front of the Wigglytuff guild.

"I only use words when they are required. Unfortunately, it appears that unlike most, you need things spelled out to you."

... "Now listen here you-" I was interrupted by a light shove forcing me on the grate. I realized that I never passed this, and thanks to my size one of my feet got snagged in it.

"Pokemon detected, Pokemon detected!" I yelped as Diglett's voice echoed from below. "The footprint belongs to... uh..." for a moment, it paused. Soon, the  dick mole Pokémon popped out of the ground, giving me a once-over.

"The footprint belongs to Ralts!" hollered Diglett, after having popped back up again. "The footprint belongs to Ralts! He's stuck," he said much lower, and... yeah. I'd somehow managed to shove my foot the perfect way through the grate for it to get stuck. As I turned around to get help from Xatu, I realized that he was gone.

...Fuck.

I tugged on my foot, but no matter what, it wouldn't come loose, and I ended up spending a few embarrassing moments just standing there.

At last, I started seeing double... no, it was just Wigglytuff stepping outside from his own head. Creeeepy.

"Hello, friend!" I felt myself immediately going mellow in his presence, if only because of his emotional beacon-like presence. He was just that chill. "I have heard that you need help, so here I am."

"...perhaps."

He leapt and wobbled over to me, and I found myself staring directly into his stomach. If I remembered correctly, the Pokédex description went something about his irresistibly fluffy fur.

...he's so close...

I watched as Wigglytuff squatted in a very kirbyesque fashion, basically bending on himself. Two pudgy arms grabbed the grate.

I don't know what could happen if I end up touching it, but... this is my only chance...!

I reached over and hugged Wigglytuff.

"...uwah ♪" I felt myself squeaking as I sunk into the fur. I'm in  _ heaven~ _

* * *

It took all of Eevee's power to not squeak out loudly at the scene before her.

Ever since she'd noticed Nate and Xatu heading towards the guild, she'd gotten curious. Curiosity, incidentally, turned to stalking.

And now she found herself staring from behind one of the trees that sat in front of the guild as the Nate she'd met earlier tried its damndest to hug the stuffing out of the guildmaster. She was nearly dying with secondhand embarrassment. That was the Guildmaster of Treasure Town, one didn't just hug him!

"Oh!" The guildmaster gasped, his mouth going into a circle shape, before he smiled placidly again, and began taking in air. More and more air, he was puffing up like a balloon. Eevee stared in shock, worrying that he was going to eat Nate as he swelled up to almost twice his original size. "I like you too, Ralts!" ...wait, that was Ralts? "Let's get you out of here!" he continued, his voice modified by the fact that his cheeks were puffed up.

He then proceeded to hug... Ralts, apparently, and hold him still. The latter suddenly seeming extremely content with the development, just rubbing himself against the Wigglytuff's stomach like a Bunnelby in heat, but with none of the intention.

"Yoom-" It was hard to describe the sheer gathering of power that Eevee felt, but her every instinct was suddenly screaming at her to run away. And she would've probably done so, if doing so didn't require her to break cover. "TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Suddenly, Wigglytuff was screaming and in a moment was back to his original size, Ralts in hand and the offending grate that had gotten it stuck destroyed.

She couldn't do anything but watch as with that, the Ralts was carried inside and the hatch slid closed.

What she had just witnessed... she had been afraid of the guild, but for entirely different motivations. Now witnessing their guildmaster's power, she was absolutely terrorized by the idea of ever getting on his bad side.

At the same time though, the gentleness that he held with Ralts, the friendly demeanor, and everything... she'd thought Wigglytuff was a very business-like pokemon who hated weakness and only recruited the strongest- admittedly from her own ideas of how an explorer's guild is ran- but she'd seen none of that.

And that strength...

Eevee unfurled from her coiled tail her Treasure and stared at it, sighing. She'd made a promise to her family, but more importantly to herself, to never let herself be so weak, so that she'd finally belong with them. But... she never managed to gather the courage to actually ask to become a member. But now, perhaps...?

"Ahem!" Eevee startled as she suddenly saw Chatot, the Guildmaster's right hand, fly in with a sign held in his talons. It read 'Grate not working. For access to the guild, please show your feet into the hole without falling down.' "I apologise, but any mail that you may have come to deliver will have to wait!"

"Eep!" squeaked Eevee, bolting away from the place.

Perhaps she could try her luck after figuring out whether the guildmaster was an exception or the rule?

* * *

~~**Omake** ~~ **Additional Scene:**

**Canon Level: Pretty Serious (10/10)**

I gasped, waking up in the middle of the night. Despite not being directly in the path of the Yoom-tah, it’d still taken anything that was left of my strength. I simply napped, then hung out at the guild for a bit, reading the job boards, then the outlaw ones as I waited for things to settle, and then suddenly it was dinner time.

It was unsettling to hear about when I asked Chatot, confused, about how fast the day had passed.

“ _ Today was definitely shorter than yesterday, wasn’t it?” he huffed. “I’m afraid that this has become the normal state of things, as of late.” _

“ _...as of late?” I tilted my head in question. _

“ _ Yes! Ever since time began getting messed up, we’ve experienced days even three times as long or twice as short!” _

_ That was… concerning. Very, very concerning. _

“ _ Why, one of the pride and joys of the Wigglytuff guild was its prized curfew! It’s impossible to maintain now!” Chatot raged. “There’s no point anymore in keeping track of time, and we often have apprentices staying days away from the guild because of the dangers of traveling at night!” _

_ It’d always been kind of skimmed over just how much the flow of time changing fucked things up. And yet everyone behaved as though it was normal, acceptable. _

_ And apparently, I was among the people that would have to punch Dialga in the snout. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the second part of this! Nate has more issues with his new form than he would enjoy, most of which are caused by being a literal baby, he meets important and unimportant people, and gets schooled by a Pokémon way wiser than himself. Also, hugs are had and Diglett probably died offscreen due to the Yoom-tah, all things considered.
> 
> Once again, this chapter was beta'd by the awesome MinccinoBestMon!


	5. Bidoof's Wish! (and the consequences of it)

Chimecho was... not mad, it did not seem that way, but I could feel odd emotions wafting off of her whenever she kept her attention on me. Concern, uncertainty, yes. But no anger.

And that was, pretty much at all times. It seems that my little stunt had cost me pretty much any element of freedom that I may have had.

I never did manage to teleport myself again. In fact, I never did manage  _ anything _ , be it any telekinesis that wasn't related to my own body. Using my Disarming Voice or any other Pokémon move, or just... anything. I was a big, useless baby. There were no more trips to Treasure Town, and I was sort of... grounded. Ish. No one said it officially, but apparently Chimecho had raised hell and that in turn led to people keeping me on a leash.

That had started 2 days ago. From then, the only thing that changed today was that I'd dragged a stool over to Croagunk's counter and was sulking on it.

That had been an acceptable compromise for Chimecho to actually start doing her job. Or rather, jobs?

She seemed to be an all around jack-of-all-trades, kind of. Most of the others tend to be out and about, and she isn't. She just keeps running errands and showing me what they are. So far I've seen preparing food, sorting mail so that no junk arrives on Chatot's desk, she used Heal Pulse and gave a once over to Whismur after he went into a dungeon, kept up with the pantry with Bidoof's help, and sometimes just floated in place, but emitted some sort of... wave?

It felt like putting a hand next to a loud speaker and feeling the vibrations.

Beyond that, the roll call had just happened. And now, I was told to wait here and not go anywhere.

They worded it nicer than that but it was the gist and I was pissy.

Other than that, I was now staring across from me as Bidoof and Chatot chatted (heh) about something. Glancing into their emotions, Chatot felt... "ordinary" is the best way to describe it, I guess, his regular attentiveness and chipper mood that categorized him, while Bidoof was a ball of nerves. That was also typical.

Also, you'd think that over time the "emotion headaches" would get better, with me getting a better handle on the stuff or something.

They didn't.

They got worse.

I can never really pinpoint exactly  _ where  _ the range of my sense ends. Mostly because it keeps expanding, and I don't really have a good frame of references for distances. I was too used to thinking of myself in the 5' range when right now I'm probably less than 1'.

Anyhow, I'd learned in these two days the general mood of the guild members. What they "felt like".

And that led to me basically flinging myself away at the noise of Whismur shouting his lungs out. "BIDOOF! YOU'VE GOT A VISITOR!" 

As Bidoof strode over, I tried to gather my bearings. "G-Golly, a visitor? For me?"

Whismur mumbled something inaudible, before shouting out "THAT'S RIGHT!" And then some more mumbling. "GET OUT OF HERE!"

Something was bugging me about this. Or maybe it was just the fact that I was antsy and was looking for an excuse to go out.

As I started creeping after the guy, I was suddenly snatched backwards by a pair of hands. Paws actually, since they lacked fingers.

"Meh-heh-heh. Don't make me knock ya out just to keep you still, Nate." I was about to be offended, but I was stopped by the fact that he actually used my name. "While I'm not a big fan of keeping children still and all, I'm even less of a fan of an angry Chimecho's Psychic, yknow? Poison-Fighting and all. No hard feelings."

I crossed my tiny arms as I was plopped back down on the stool. I was an independent person, geeze.

"Just you wait till I learn Confusion." I grumbled, taking joy in the amount of worry (and oddly enough, interest) that procured into Croagunk.

"Meh heh heh. Where did you learn all that-" Before Croagunk continued his line of questioning, Bidoof came running back down the stairs.

Bidoof strode up to Chatot. "Chatot, sir, could I have some time off?" 

Now that bothered me even more. I couldn't place it, but...

"Whaaaaaaaat?!" Chatot asked. "You want to take time off from guild training?!"

"By time off, I just mean a couple days. Yup yup."

"What is your reason for wanting to take time off?"

"Huh? R-Reason?"

"Meh heh heh. All this sounds very shady,” commented Croagunk. 

I glanced at him. "Yeah." 

We listened to the conversation go on as Bidoof bumbled his way through the most awkward of day-off requests, citing a sick stomach.

"He's lying his ass off." I mumbled. And I didn't need to be a sensor to realize that. But why would-

My eyes widened as I remembered a detail.

A small, miniscule, insignificant detail.

The Bidoof side story. Star Cave.

And in the game, he'd asked for more people to join the guild.

But. I was here. And that changed everything, because I indeed came after Bidoof. What if he wished for something else, and the player never appeared here.

I gulped. What if my presence here changed everything? How would I deal with the consequences then?!

Before I knew it, the musty smell of the cave was replaced with a salty sea breeze. I was staring down Sharpedo Bluff.

I'd... teleported again, accidentally.

This was getting out of hand.

Wanting to be out of a situation didn't mean I wanted to just bamf somewhere, especially with the headache that came with it. And I can't exactly teleport far enough away that the flow of time ceasing to exist would help.

I massaged my temples and tried to think of what was going on.

It... wasn't the end of the world (though it could end up resulting in it) if it happened, but I really, really would prefer it if things didn't change.

I mean, I could replace the protagonist, but I didn't exactly trust myself to handle myself well in their place.

A full-body shudder took me at the idea of having to fight Dusknoir. No thanks. And Eevee was the partner, which meant that she was also not doing shit to him with her typing.

What now, what now...

My ass is grass and Chimecho's a lawnmower if I don't come back to the guild like, right now. And the guild follows Bidoof to Star Cave, I could ask to be brought along... there would be a very, very low chance of that happening. Especially being grounded as I am.

I doubt that the guild minus one member would have trouble with it, but it's still disheartening to think of the ripples.

Still, I have to go back now and... yeah. No, there's no avoiding it.

I began making my way back to Treasure Town, ignoring the small feeling of disappointment that bloomed in my heart at the idea of not heading down into Beach Cave. That... feels odd.

I stared for a moment, eyes fixed on the cave I could still see from the top of the bluff as I tried to locate what this feeling was.

I... need? To go there. No. I  _ want _ to go there.

Why?

...no clue.

I found myself walking through town, carefully  _ not _ taking the main road that lead to the main plaza to go through Treasure Town as I ran the idea through my head.

Beach Cave was... pretty dangerous, though not that much. It was near the guild, near the town, and a low level dungeon.

That still didn't explain what I was feeling, but... the Bagons.

It  _ did _ feel pretty kickass to fight the Bagons.

Do I want to fight in the first place..?

I felt a small flutter in my chest at the idea, which was  _ definitely  _ odd. I definitely wanted to fight more, if not specifically against Dusknoir.

Why did I want to fight?

That, I couldn't answer, and I also wasn't going to answer as I found myself bumping into a purple creature, which was weird given that I specifically avoided the main road for this exact reason.

"Geh! What the hell?" asked a scratchy voice as I recovered, getting up and staring. It was a tall pokemon (for my standards), though he was squatting slightly, and looked like what you'd get if you made a mix of a scorpion and a bat and tinged it purple.

And together with it was something that had me stand slightly on edge. A Bagon.

"What are you doing, just bumping into us, huh?!" asked Bagon, stepping forward threateningly.

"Yeah, don't you know who we are?!" said Gligar, getting back up and lifting into the air. "Get lost, kid!" my world went into slow motion as Gligar came forward with one of its claws.

From then on, it was a little fuzzy, but I remember that I began screeching Disarming Voices, especially at Bagon (Fuck Bagons), and then got knocked out.

When I came back to, I saw that there was someone in front of me. "-a-and if you t-try to d-do one more t-thing y-you'll have to take it up with me! Y-yeah!" Bidoof's voice was saying.

However, I was more concerned with the sensation of  _ disgust _ from above me coming from what looked like a miniature snowy tree, who was looking at me and putting its paws on me. I recoiled as much as my body would allow, which was admittedly not much.

"Hmph! Let's bolt, Gligar!" said Bagon, and I felt a surge of pride in myself at the way it was limping to get away from Bidoof.

"Yeah!" the other, whose stinger was alarmingly coated in blood, began flying away as well. "Freak..."

Bidoof turned towards me with concern all but *radiating* from him. I was feeling woozy. "Whoah! Are you alright there, Ralts?"

"Are they gone?" I mumbled. The edges of my vision were starting to blur. That was probably not good.

"Yup-yup!" Bidoof confirmed. "But by golly, I gotta get you to the guild! Sorry Snover, I'm going to need a moment!" I turned to eye the other person, whose disgust and hatred hadn't left at all and even got stronger.

"I-It's alright... it was very brave of you to help him, Bidoof!" praised Snover. It was empty praise.

And despite that, Bidoof fell for it hook, line and sinker, glowing with bashfulness.

"G-golly, it was nothing..." I felt cotton balls begin to fill my ears as I stumbled towards Bidoof.

And then everything went black.

* * *

_ Somewhere else, in another time... _

_ Grovyle struggled. Celebi had mentioned that the voyage would be turbulent, but this was ridiculous. It felt as though he was being pulled in all directions all at once, and he was not emptying his stomach only because there'd hardly been anything to eat for the last 3 days. _

_ Another lurch had him bending over, one of his paws still clinging to the hand of his trainer while the other held his stomach. _

_ "Whoa!" From the side of his head he eyed his trainer. Maroon eyes stared into his own yellow in concern. And then time lurched again, and for a moment, he saw the scene again multiple times in the span of a second. "Wh-wh-whoa!" His trainer's image spazzed, the only thing remaining normal being the hand still holding him. _

_ "Are..." Another flicker. "Are you okay?!" He shouted. Grovyle grunted in confirmation. It wasn't like the human could understand his words. _

_ A wave of dizziness came over him and he found his grip slackening, the only thing keeping them together being his trainer's vice grip on his arm. Even still, he found himself slipping. "No! Don't let go!" his trainer shouted. "Just a little longer... Come on! Hang on!" he was coaxed, and he could feel a little bit of strength returning to him, just enough to pull his weight and hang on the trainer's arm. _

_ And that was the moment where something struck them both. _

_ He couldn't see what it was, temporarily going blind from the pain, and he could barely hear anything. _

_ "N-n-no!" With each flicker, his trainer's grip fell more slack. "I can't... hang on..." He groaned in pain, and Grovyle found himself in a similar state of inability. _

_ With one last lurch, the two of them were completely separated. The last thing Grovyle heard before blacking out being a "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" from his trainer. _

* * *

Shaymin Village was in a bit of a tizzy. Normally, given the terrible earthquake that had recently occurred, they did not have any visitors. Some lamented the lack of people coming and going, while some enjoyed the peace, but it was still an anomaly for them to see anyone which wasn't a Shaymin.

So when an unknown Pokemon appeared in the center of the rocks that marked the Shaymin Plaza, well... it was certainly unusual.

However, despite the best efforts of some, it appeared that this new arrival wouldn't be waking up any time soon. The poor thing must have been exhausted, and the sickly green of their leaves seemed to imply that they hadn't seen the sun in a while. 

All in all, the mood had gained a degree of fibrillation at the appearance of a new face. And even if they weren't awake yet, the Shaymin there were sure of one thing.

This new arrival was a very interesting and curious thing.

* * *

I had no idea how long I spent under. I could feel myself slipping in and out of consciousness, the scenery ever changing until it rested on the now familiar shape of my room at the guild.

It was the middle of the night. I saw Chimecho and Sunflora both curled up in their straw beds, making me notice that Chimecho apparently slept rolled up in her own body cloth.

I wasn't sure how I felt at that piece of information.

Groggily rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I found myself surprised when my paws came away wet.

My dream... can't even remember it. Perhaps it was for the best.

I felt giga sore, but beyond a bit of stiffness, it was alright. Running my paws along both of my horns, I found that they also were in perfect state, with my bow hanging in its place on my front horn.

At last, I stood up, and sneaked out of the room. I was hungry and thirsty, but not tired at all. I headed outside the room and toward the kitchen. Something, however, felt out of place.

Sleep at the guild was a funny thing. The feelings that emanated from others, while also being weirder, were way more muted and peaceful than normal, provided that anyone didn't have a nightmare.

So it was pretty easy to spot a dutiful and worried beacon of emotion among all of the sleep feelings, one floor above me. Chatot, I think?

I tried to climb my way up the stairs, and I can say that I only almost messed up when I noticed that Croagunk was sleeping next to his cauldron and gave me almost a heart attack. I saw him shake in his sleep in response, so I quickly scampered up the stairs.

What I saw surprised me.

It was not Chatot who was awake, but Bidoof, except that... the emotions I was feeling from him were only partially in sync with what I remembered. It left me feeling slightly confused.

"Bidoof?" I asked, looking at him. He'd been walking back and forth, occasionally turning between the bulletin board and the window that looked out into the sea, before noticing me.

"G-golly!" he turned around, staring at me. "Didn't see you there, Ralts." He muttered. Something new popped up in his emotions. Guilt.

"How long have I been asleep...?" I asked him. "Are you okay?" I felt my own guilt flare up as a natural response to his. I definitely blew my chances of helping with Star Cave.... what is going to happen now...? What did Bidoof wish for?

"You were down for four days, yup yup..." He mumbled. "Mighty sorry about that, yup yup. If I hadn't been so slow, you wouldn't have been in half the trouble. Hope ya can forgive me..." He dipped his head low to the ground, and I stared in shock.

"Four days...?" I mumbled. That was longer than I'd been alive for in this body.

"If I'd been smarter about it, if I'd realized sooner that those goons had poisoned ya, golly..." He shook his head. "Oof, it was very close. Snover tricked me into going on a wild Rattata chase to find a way to heal ya, and I fell for it all..."

I felt slightly numb at the revelation. I'd... almost died within the confines of Treasure Town. That felt more shocking than it had any right to be. I mean, I was in a town filled with murderbeasts, but... I guess I expected more out of a children's game.

I was a murderbeast too now.

My mind flew back to Beach Cave and my earlier- the need to fight I felt a few days ago, which reared back its head.

" -gave me a huge piece of her mind, yup yup. She's scary like that." I tuned back into Bidoof's conversation piece, trying to focus. "And when the guild ambushed Team Rogue, she almost blasted 'em to pieces. The guild was definitely interested in making sure they couldn't run away when they heard about ya, yup yup."

"Team Rogue?" I asked. Who were they again?

"Ah! Golly, I forgot to tell ya. Snover, Gligar and Bagon were apparently a team from another guild who decided to go rogue and start stealing from people using their guild's training. We handed 'em off to Officer Magnezone, though I'm not sure what happened to them."

"Ah." I paused for a moment. "How bad off was Bagon?" I wanted to know.

"Golly, he was pretty bad off! Went down in a single hit, though I must say that Chatot is  _ very _ strong. Had never seen him fight, nossire." It was in that moment I remembered that I was technically supposed to be a kid.

"Wow..." I mumbled, feigning surprise and wonder. "...what did you wish for, Bidoof?" I asked him. "New friends?"

"A-ah, oof. So you heard about the part about the wish as well?" Bidoof sounded embarrassed. "No, I didn't ask for new friends." His voice was low, and I could feel the blood drain out of my face.

"With what happened with Team Rogue, and how I keep messing up..." he sniffled. "I realized that I didn't want the ability to become the best explorer just handed over to me. But at the same time, I did not want to be a burden for the guild, and I wanted to finally be useful and not put anyone in danger, yup yup."

"So when Jirachi asked me what I wanted, I told him that I wanted to become smarter, so that I could be a better guild member for everyone."

It took all of the little control I had to recognize the fact that my body was acting on its own and try and force myself to calm down so that I wouldn't teleport away once again.

"Oof... it sounds bad when I say it this way. But I wanted to become an example for everyone, and stupid as I was a while back I could not do that. Gee, so many things came into perspective after that... oh!" Bidoof turned to stare directly at me. "I didn't tell you  _ how _ I got smarter! Or- er, will get smarter, 'nyways." He told me, slightly higher but still low enough to not wake anyone up.

"Jirachi said that while my request was somewhat selfish, he could sense that the intentions behind were pure or something. And so, he disappeared in a flash of light, and replaced by him were a lot of Gummi!"

"I didn't wanna just eat them all by myself, after all the help the others gave me, so I tried to split with the guild, but most everyone refused. The only ones who said yes were Chimecho, Whismur and Diglett, yup-yup. But I still had a lot of Gummis left still, and those make you super smart!" Despite the white noise that was filling my brain, I forced myself to hold rapt attention to Bidoof's words. "

“And so I ate them, and now I'm that much smarter and can help everyone that much more, yup yup! Yup yup!" He paused for a moment, looking around.

"Don't tell anyone, but I also kept this for you as a sorry gift. It's a super rare one!" He said, and pulled out a reddish-looking piece of candy. "Try it!"

"I..." I looked at the thing in front of me. Me eating this came, potentially, at the cost of the whole world.

...and to prevent that, I would need to be as smart as one can get. These things boosted IQ, right...?

"Thank you Bidoof." I said, trying to force myself into smiling as I looked over the small piece of candy, which was still sizable for me. My body took that time to start rumbling because of the hunger I was feeling earlier.

I brought the Gummi to my mouth. If I had to make any comparison, it was like trying to fit a  _ huge _ slice of orange in my mouth if I had still been human.

And then, I chomped into it.

The flavor, the aroma, the complexion... all of it was perfect. Absolutely divine, a gift from Arceus himself. For a moment, for just a moment, I felt that perhaps it might've even been worth it.

And then I felt like shit afterwards about thinking that, but I still had this slice of divinity in my mouth to compensate.

Before I knew it, it was gone, and I was running my tongue along my teeth and fangs to try to scrape the last bits of taste out. "Whoaaaaaaaah." I gasped.

Information filled my mind on what I was, banishing away any traces of doubt about how I functioned, how to do things, how to  _ be _ ... My moves, the things I could do with the power of my mind, they were all gently inserted and neatly packed in the folds of my brain by an angel's hand.

Bidoof smiled at me with something that felt like relief, he was giving himself a pat on the back for the good job.

I was no longer hungry, it'd filled my belly as well and replenished my thirst. This thing was incredible.

And... it'd filled me with an odd sort of courage. I was scared, afraid of the future, but...

"I'll be back in a jiffy, alright?" I told him, my mouth quirking upwards in a shaky smile and I dipped my head to show less of my eyes to him, staring at the floor.

"Wha- oy!" Bidoof startled, and I concentrated to let the world around me melt away.

I was now staring out into the sea from the... jaws, of Sharpedo Bluff. I groaned at the headache I felt, and I definitely was not aiming there. I looked around myself, but it was too dark to see, and suddenly a few Zubats began running away with shrieks of "What in the world!" "Mommy!" "Help!"

"Sorry!" I whispered to the remaining ones, who were giving me dirty looks. Without eyes. Weird.

Turning back towards the sea, I felt the despair in my stomach ease a little. "I... can do this. I can bring about change in the world, it doesn't have to just be negative. I... hopefully, if I play this right, I won't need to be as strong as the human was...?" The fact that it came out as a question and not a definite thing frightened me a little. But, baby steps.

With my small self-reassurance done, I tried to teleport back into the guild. I stared at the dark walls of earth that surrounded me, trying to figure out where I'd ended up.

Following the tunnel led to the night sky, and a grate above me.

At the other end of the tunnel, there was what looked to be my mortal enemy (that wasn't a Bagon). A ladder.

Uh-oh.

* * *

**Omake:**

**Canon level: Confirmed PeePee (6/10)**

In the past 2 days, I've had a lot of time to reflect on the nature of my new body and what exactly I seem to be able and unable to do.

Here's my progress so far.

**Physiology:**

I do not think I am, physically speaking, any different from other members of the Ralts species. However, given that I haven't met any other Ralts so far, this is just a slightly informed guess. I am... basing things strictly off of the Pokémon anime, I am a head or so tall and light enough that a child could carry me easily, and even moreso since I was born the other day.

It appears that, despite my past my past observations, I have fur all over my body. However, this fur is incredibly short and thin, and my skin color underneath is similarly white if leaning slightly more towards pink.

I doubt it's of any interest to anyone, but my genitals are where you'd expect them to be, except that they're sort of retracted into a sheath. It feels very weird, to be honest.

My green hair seems to be identical, aside from coloration, to human hair. It doesn't seem to fall in the same bowl cut that I expected, but it's still far enough away that I can kinda see despite it hanging over my eyes.

The elephant in the room, my two horns, seem to be directly connected to my brain or fused into my skull. They hurt slightly if I try to press on them, and they are quite sensitive, but still seem to be at least as hard as bone or stronger given my ability to repeatedly slam the front one into a Bagon without it breaking or even chipping.

I have also confirmed that my feet are two small, pointy things that are completely incapable of letting me remain upright, even under the assumption that the legs could hypothetically hold my weight.

Big spoiler: they don't. I have attempted to even just push myself into a sort of a push-up without the use of psychic abilities and found myself woefully lacking in the muscle department.

My hands seem to be separated into three very stiff fingers, which I've tried and failed to be able to move so far. I think they might be reserved for a later evolution or something, but right now I've felt very weird trying to move them.

Lastly, and this is something even less sure than the rest of my observations, I think I might have a secondary brain somewhere in my chest or something similar to that. I remember reading in PokéNatomy the fact that psychic type Pokémon have a surplus of gray matter in areas other than the brain so that they may use their powers, but it is of course only a fan work. The only thing that kiiinda leads me to believe this is the fact that in my attempts to use moves I began feeling strain both in my chest and in my brain. Assuming this isn't a Pokémon thing and I don't have a heart condition, there might be something there.

Either that, or it's some kind of metaphorical-literal representation of my power stemming from emotions, and thus from the heart. Still weird.

However, it might also be the crystal that Gardevoirs have jutting out of their chests, but isn't that the head crystal that has moved in position?

I have no clue.

**Moves and weird capabilities:**

The biggest weird thing I can currently do, though it is more something that happens to me since I cannot seem to turn it off, is sense the emotions of other Pokémon. While within the guild, I've been able to sense while focusing roughly up to the entrance and slightly outside, though that range greatly diminishes if I try to do literally anything else in the meantime. The types of emotions I can feel are fairly complex, though I guess that being a human turned pokemon compared to an actual baby gives me an edge in that regard.

And on that note, it seems that the amount of just general strength I can put into a determinate task is directly determined by how much I'm focusing on it, presumably due to being a psychic type. However, focusing too much on a task gives me a headache. Also, I've had no luck performing moves and the like except right after I was born and directly into a stressful situation. Right after eating my first Gummi, however, I suddenly knew how to do my things. Perhaps I just need to figure out how my body works?

It's also clear from my lack of reaction to being blasted repeatedly by Bagons' breath that I am a fairy type, which is interesting in that it only happened in 6th generation and this is a 4th generation game, but more on that later.

I seem to be more in tune with my Psychic side than with my Fairy side, at least for now, given that I've had no luck using anything that would be fairy related that isn't a move beyond my ridicolous empathy which could very well be attributed to either typing. However, what would even be something fairy-related? Psychic types seem to largely have your textbook psychic powers- telepathy, telekinesis, et cetera. But Fairy? 

Psychic type energy is simply put... how strong I can think about stuff and make it happen. I believe that it is the reason why I teleported when my emotions rose too high in the situation of panic, but... yeah. It at least makes sense. I think, and manifest strength.

From my experience after being born, chaotic as it may have been, Fairy Type energy is completely different. When I was using Disarming Voice, it was more like I could just... do it, simply because I wished for my voice to sound different and that I could do it without any explaination of the how or why. It was like magic. Sheer power.

And if magic worked like it did in some settings, trying to explain it would only screw me over later, so then again I should probably stop this line of thought.

The moves that I'm aware of knowing are Disarming Voice, obviously, and Teleport. If there's something else that I can do, I haven't had the chance or been put in the required situation. Then again, I'm very low level...

I have no idea what my ability is either. I assume I have one, but I can't really tell what it is, and I can't remember which ability (or abilities) Raltses had.

I wonder how my nature influences me. I wasn't that into the competitive setting that I can remember which natures gave what, except that maybe Timid (one of the two that the questionnaire identified me with) gave Speed or Special Defense at the cost of Attack...?

**General Notes:**

I've confirmed that despite the game being set in a 4th generation setting, there's definitely pokemon from other generations, as evidenced as that time where a massive blue bird just vomited a bunch of letters on our doorstep, declaring himself as the "substitute postman" much to Chatot's chagrin.

I was later informed that pokemon was called a Cramorant, which was useful because I did not remember that one aside from it spitting fish in the SwSh trailer. I have not played the 7th and 8th generations.

Right as I'd given up for now on interacting in any meaningful way with the guild members outside Chimecho, mostly because I can't behave like a baby enough beyond "Waddle after the closest person" to fool people into not questioning why the two day old baby is talking like a normal person, when suddenly Wigglytuff, ever helpful, mentioned that Psychic type Pokémon tend to talk to their babies telepathically while they're still eggs. I latched onto the excuse at full strength.

I think that I definitely fucked up something if the way Whismur is sulking these days is anything to go by. Like, I basically prevented him from getting his evolution, and he's grounded so he can't go train. Sunflora busting the Dojo door also means that no one cannot go in, and thus need to go out in mystery dungeons to train.

I haven't seen anyone else that didn't enter the guild doors these days, on accounts of being grounded, so that sucks. However, I also realized that beyond the concern of the various guild members, they seem to be genuinely clueless on what to do with me. Apparently, I don't emote much, and... it is something that I have no idea how to work on. Pokémon are like open books to me, as I immediately understand their emotions, but they would otherwise be a mystery to me about what their feeling, and I guess I haven't been giving any cues about how I feel in turn beyond the occasional smile.

On the other hand, I can't read their cues either, and I don't know how to display my emotional state to what basically amounts to animals. So... yeah. No clue there, or anywhere else. Not much else I can say.

Only other thing of note was meeting Team Glee. They're nice, and offered me a spot with them that I politely refused, on account of both not even being a Guild Apprentice (yet) which is what I told them, and secretly on account on how I was going to need to make my own team.

The flare of determination from Togepi scared me way more than it had any right to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoop dee doo, another week another chapter!
> 
> We've covered the entirety of Bidoof's wish and the immediate consequences of it! Isn't messing with canon fun?!
> 
> Nate definitely does not approve, and he's a wimp who got beaten up in a fight with two thugs. Nobody tell him that he was the one who started it by using a move. We also see a glimpse of other people doing their own thing, like trying to save the world and escaping from a doomed future. You know, fun stuff.
> 
> I've been having a rough few days lately, with school and life in general. I'll be taking the next week off from writing to give myself a chance to recover and hopefully come back stronger than before. Thank you for understanding.
> 
> And also, thank you for all the support for the fic! I'm glad to know that so many of you enjoy what I write! Please take care of yourselves in these trying times, and remember that you are loved and cherished. 
> 
> Special thanks to JustM33 (MinccinoBestMon's new name) for betaing this chapter! The fic would be at least 20% worse without them.


	6. Swap Shop Stop

In the end, I fell asleep in the hole while waiting for Bidoof to come get me out of there. Mostly because after teleporting twice, I was far too tired and too head-achy to get out on my own.

When I woke up, it was to a wiener staring directly at my face. Um.

...no, wait, that was a Diglett. Or, rather, that was  _ Diglett _ .

"I found him! I found him!" he holled. At that moment, my body came back online.

Straw bedding sucked, but nude earth sucked even more. I was sore.

Somehow, I climbed out of my hole. I found myself face to face with Chimecho- who was very displeased with me. At least, if the strength of her telekinetic grip was anything to go by. Or if the  _ Angry _ and  _ Upset  _ were anything to go by.

Um.

"Ow ow ow ow  _ ow _ -" I muttered as I was carried into my room. Her anger had been growing exponentially as soon as she saw me.

"You've only got yourself to thank for this," she growled. "Do you have any idea how worrisome it is every time you teleport away?! Not once, not twice, but three times! Three!"

"I didn't do it on purpose!" I shot back, angry. "It just... happened!" I still decided to leave out the "this time" part.

"And so your reaction to that is to go pick fights with people?" She asked. "The first time, we found you in front of a Mystery Dungeon, the second Bidoof brought you in that you almost died!" She shouted, the sound of bells echoing everywhere. "And your reaction to that, after eating something that is supposed to make you smarter, is to go and do it  _ again _ ?

"Look." She sighed. "You're clearly intelligent, I can see that much," she murmured.

She seemed about to say something else, but she paused when she looked at me. The anger bubbling in her abated, replaced by pity. "That is... good." She sighed. "I know that when we found you you were in a dungeon, but... there's no need to fight for survival anymore."

In my mind flashed the image of Bagon and Gligar, both registering brightly as perils. They were accompanied by the phantom pain of Bullet Seed. "But- those guys..." I voiced my concerns.

"Those two were  _ criminals _ , Ralts." I was lowered gently to the ground. Hower, I found myself remaining slightly afloat, which confused the hell out of me. I wasn't feeling Chimecho using Psychic on me, it was like...

I'd think about this later. Chimecho was still talking.

"In an ideal world, you wouldn't have been attacked by those thugs. However, I can't stress enough that you should definitely not follow the example they set, they were... taken care of, and handed to Officer Magnezone." There was a hint of bitterness inside her emotions. "However, about that situation, you should still know that you were in the wrong there."

...wait.

"WHAT?!" I shouted in my squeaky-ass voice, but. How?

"Let me explain. While they obviously should not have picked a fight with you, we've been told that you were the first to open up with a move." She probed. "Is that right?"

My mind flashed back to the situation. I remember Gligar coming in with his claw, but... "I don't know? He came at me with his claw, and then I struck back..." I muttered. "Was that not a move? Am I in trouble?" Getting in trouble with the law could be terrible now.

She sighed again. "No, you are not. However, I should still teach you the most important rules of Treasure Town.”

"As we aren't ferals, us Pokémon have banded together in a community for the sake of protecting each other, living in peace and helping one another by making others' lives better and having our lives bettered in turn by others.”

"That means living under a set of rules. We do not steal from one another, ever. If something does not belong to us, we can ask for it, we can trade, but it is up to its owner to give it to you.”

"We do not attack other Pokémon with moves. Never,  _ ever,  _ unless agreed upon." She put particular gravity on that one. "Inside of a town we never use moves to threaten one another. It makes other Pokémon feel unsafe and distrust one another. And that is never a good thing.

"And lastly..." She floated towards me and wrapped herself snugly around my body, her head nestled into my shoulder. It was a weird reminder that she was a living cloth, but it was also very nice to be literally surrounded with good feelings. I hugged her the best I could. "We try our best to be nice to each other and to help one another, alright?"

I was proud to say that due to my eminent manliness I teared up only a little as I nodded. "Okay."

"You don't have to fight anymore, if you don't want to." I felt her stroking my back, and I felt a small sting of pain at the knowledge of the fact that she was unintentionally lying. She didn't know what I did.

But for now, it felt nice.

And then someone had to go ruin it, by proclaiming both with words and (to my senses) with her feelings, a super loud "Awwwwwwwww!"

I turned around (turning Chimecho herself around in the process) to stare at the nuisance.

Fucking Sunflora, man.

"How come you've never hugged me the way you're hugging Ralts?" She pouted, as I automatically corrected her with "Nate, not Ralts."

She giggled, and popped back out of the room and into the guild proper before either of us had any chance to speak up, leaving me to feel the embarrassment stemming from both myself and Chimecho. However, I was determined not to let her ruin the moment, and as Chimecho disentangled herself from me, I gave her cloth one last affectionate squeeze.

She was interested. "Nate?"

"It's my name." I told her. "The one I remember being called by, anyways." I added as an afterthought to maintain my story.

"The guildmaster has had no luck so far finding whoever it might've been who left your egg in a dungeon,” said Chimecho.

"Oh." I thought about it for a moment. "Why did you think about getting me out of the dungeon, by the way? Don't Pokémon there also hatch from eggs?"

"Well, first of all, you were found in the Dragon Dojo, which is very unusual and lucky for someone of your evolutionary line." 

...wait, I was at the Marowak Dojo?

Chimecho continued. "Secondly, at least according to Sunflora, you appeared civilized due to the bow wrapped around your front horn, and the fact that you didn't attack them immediately."

"...ah." I didn't really have much to say to that, though I felt ice run through my veins at the realization. I was this close to being abandoned in a dungeon and having to fight my way through while I didn't even have anything with me or knowledge on how to do anything.

A silent moment passed.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"Just because you  _ claim _ to have understood my words doesn't mean I trust you to go out alone, young 'mon. I know it is boring, but everyone would feel much more at ease if you-" Whatever tirade she was about to go into was interrupted by an unearthly shout.

" **CHIMECHO! CHATOT NEEDS TO SEE YOU!** " I was actually blown back and almost out of the window by the strength of the shout, unable to dig in my knees to the ground as I was still levitating for whatever reason. I was almost sure I couldn't feel Chimecho doing the levitating part for me.

My head was ringing, and I dropped to the floor a moment after. "Whaaaaaa" stars were spinning in my vision. I'm pretty sure that anyone who looked at my face would mistake me for a Spinda.

"You're lucky that the guildmaster needs me, but as I said, no going out alone..." Chimecho muttered dazedly, floating out of the room while I regained my bearings.

"Euuuurgh..." I sloooowly got up. Why did my head feel like I had spammed teleport like there was no tomorrow?

Eventually, I managed to stumble my way out of the room, and find myself sprawling over the swap shop's counter.

"Meh heh heh. Better learn to cover your ears fast when you see Whismur, Nate." rounding the corner, the familiar face of Croagunk greeted me.

"Hi."

"Looking less murdery today. And less murdered, meh heh heh." He always exuded an aura of being chill. Like, he was just always mildly alright.

And then a thought struck me, related to yesterday's nihilistic realization.

"Hey Croagunk?" I asked him, propping myself up on my elbows (which I did have, I was a regularly jointed humanoid besides fingers and toes).

"Yes?" he asked, curious.

"What is it that you do at the guild?" I mean, we were technically at his swap shop, but I'd realized that he wasn't really doing anything with it. Not anything that I've seen, anyways.

"Meh heh heh. Right now? Not much. C'mere." he leaned over the counter and put one of his paws on my back. I felt something grip me. How'd that work?

"You see this cauldron?" He lifted me over the empty cauldron. It looked... worn out. Definitely showed the signs of age. "My species can secrete a special kind of acid that I like to use to create items." He demonstrated this by puffing up his throat before spitting out some green fluid in the cauldron. It sizzled, and I winced. Definitely didn't want to touch that.

"I can use it to break down some items found in dungeons that resonate with certain species and build stronger items, such as this." He pulled down his guild scarf to reveal a sort of... necklace wasn't the right word, it looked like a not-full-circle-bracelet but put around the neck that had two croagunks at the extremities that could be pulled apart to put it on or remove it. "This tork, I made myself. It makes it easier to find good stuff in the dungeons, meh heh heh."

"Woah." For once, I was genuinely impressed, looking down at the cauldron. I noticed that some fluid was coming out of the side of it, and now Croagunk's feet were being slightly splashed. He didn't seem to mind though. "Look out!" I said regardless, because it was acid.

"Meh heh heh. That's the reason the Swap Shop is closed. I find myself in need of a new cauldron, and not enough money to purchase one. Coulda made something for ya otherwise." He chuckled. He was always chuckling.

"I wanna become an explorer." I mumbled to him. It was- not completely true, I didn't want to necessarily do it, but I had to and it was kinda cool. And it would hopefully get me access to ways that I could use to avoid dying.

I'm gonna pack so many Reviver Seeds once I have access to them.

...huh. That sparked a thought in me, but before I could even think about it much, he replied to me.

"Meh heh heh. Well, you're gonna want to talk to Chimecho and Chatot about that, but I wouldn't bank on them saying yes." Despite the chill, there was an uncertainty lying below.

"...hmm." Right now, I knew that they definitely would not say yes. Plus, they were apparently talking. "Will you bring me to Treasure Town today?" I asked instead.

"Meh heh heh... what?" he said, and I got the feeling that he was going through a mental 404.

"Well... Chimecho said that she didn't trust me to go out alone." I get the feeling that she meant "or with anyone that isn't me". But hey, she didn't  _ say _ that, so it's fair game. "So if you bring me, it's fine?" I asked.

He hesitated, and so I channeled all my cuteness. I don't think that I quite managed to pull off a Baby-Doll Eyes, but it was a close thing I reckon.

"I suppose that getting some fresh air will be good for both of us. Been a while since I had a reason to go in town besides stalking Bidoof, meh heh heh... I gotta grab a few things first." He stalked off to what I think was the storage area.

While he was away, the thought I had earlier came back to me.

Back in the old world, it was claimed that what sets us apart from beasts was the usage of tools. This was not a completely true assessment; what actually set us apart was cooking.

I want to know how cooked berries taste. I doubt I'll ever be trying meat ever again, but at least roasted berries should not be morally reprehensible.

Then again, grass types...

Getting off topic. Anyways... tool usage. In this world, it was what set apart ferals from intelligent Pokémon, for the most part. I couldn't remember if ferals could use items, though I didn't see any bagon use items beyond food.

But for the most part, Pokémon still relied on their natural tools, right? With moves and such?

I wonder if there could be crafted aids to fill in the gaps that some Pokémon have, such as a normal type hitting ghosts.

As I gave this some thought, Croagunk returned with a satchel in tow that clinked with a metallic sound of several objects clunking against one another. It was full.

"Huh?" I asked. "What's there?"

"Meh heh heh. Just some treasure that I got during this last few months' exploration. I never bothered getting Xatu to open them, hoping to find the way to unlock these, but it seems that I might as well since I haven't found a way yet."

"I think Xatu might be gone or going away soon." I mentioned as he passed me by and began climbing the ladder, satchel slung over his shoulder, prompting me to follow him.

"Really? Meh heh heh, all the more reason to go now than later then." Croagunk chuckled.

As we made our way back to town, it appeared to be a surprisingly quiet moment. It wasn't a bad quiet, just a moment where there did not seem to be anything in particular going on. Just the merchants, a Phampy going about his own business, Shuppet talking with Duskull over at the bank, and Spinda...

"Are you alright?" I asked as Spinda leaned on the hard ground near the watering hole. It was there in the place where the Spinda Cafe would appear.

"I am fine. However, I am in trouble." Spinda said, immediately contradicting himself. "Every morning, I wake up, use my Dig HM to learn Dig so that I may get inside my new to-be shop, then use my Rock-Smash HM to work on the internal part of the shop, and then learn Dig again to get out. Today, however, I realized that I mixed my HMs and accidentally learned Rock Smash after getting out of my shop, and I find myself locked out here, while the HM is in there." he said, sounding depressed.

"Oh." I said. "I could probably help out with-

_ huuuuuurt _

Pain bloomed in the back of my head as a slap from Croagunk sent me careening forward.

"What the fuuuuuu-"

"Meh heh heh. I'm well aware of the Teleport hijinks you've been up to these days, Ralts. Chimecho would have my hide if she learned I let you do it." he turned to face Spinda. "Meh heh heh. Have you already filed a request at the guild? It shouldn't be hard, we're only talking about a small retrieval that Diglett or Dugtrio would be happy to fulfill."

"Thank you sir. I will go out posthaste, as soon as I am done here." he gestured to himself lying on the ground. But...  _ what _ was he doing there?

Croagunk nodded in approval, and dragged me away from Spinda and into Treasure Town proper.

"I'm going to report you to the authorities for abuse." I commented blandly. "I heard some talk around treasure town, rumors about how I was kidnapped from somewhere. I'm sure I can convince Officer Magnezone to take you into custody," I said in a deadpan.

"Meh heh heh, sure you will. After that scene cuddling with Chimecho, I can't imagine you wanting to stay at the guild any longer." he shot back.

AcK! Critical hit!

We passed in front of the Duskull bank, ignoring the two furiously chatting Ghost types, and the Phanpy who... apparently was having trouble getting his moves linked due to his typing or something. I didn't stick around to figure out exactly how that would go on.

"Croagunk! Old pal!" Someone called out as we crossed the bridge that led to the western part of Treasure Town, as evidenced by the fact that everyone was wearing a cowboy hat.

That was a joke. You’re allowed to laugh. Laugh.

Turning around, I saw the Kecleon brothers waving at us in greeting. Croagunk waved back.

...huh. I guess that among... weird reptiles- wait, were frogs amphibians?- nevermind whatever I was trying to say about kinship.

"What brings you out of the guild you've been haunting all these months like some sort of Ghastly?" asked the purple brother.

"And with a little friend to boot! I hear you've been causing trouble here around Treasure Town!" added the green one. They both tittered at their own jokes.

For the first time, I noticed something different in Croagunk's area. He was now feeling fairly awkward, a sentiment which I shared, hiding slightly behind his huge frame.

"Meh heh heh. Just passing through, finally cleaning my stock of treasure boxes from last year's expeditions." he mentioned. "No shopping, I'm afraid." he chuckled.

...something came to mind.

"Kecleon?" I asked the green shopkeeper as I turned towards him, attracting the attention of the other three. "How many berries do you have in stock?"

There was a moment of silence before he turned and gave Croagunk a dirty look. "Already starting to induct the little fellow into the guild to run errands? Aren't you guys happy with the Bidoof doing this already?"

"Meh heh heh. He must've heard Chimecho instruct Bidoof about the stock and decided to do it." For a moment, I felt a weird sensation as one of Croagunk's paws was pressed on my head. "Might as well tell us, no?"

"Hmph! Not like any of you ever buy anything that isn't berries." the purple Kecleon sniffled. "We've got 3 Pechas and one Oran."

Noted. "Thank you sir."

"Hmph. Keep up to the good work!" They called out after us as we retreated to the south of their shoop.

"...do you not like going out often, Croagunk?" I asked, referencing the various hints I'd gotten.

He stopped for a moment, staring directly at me, before chuckling. "Meh heh heh." He offered me a paw. I awkwardly took it, not sure why he was doing it.

"Look." He commanded, and I stared at the visible part of his arm. It was covered in blisters. "The weather here isn't kind to us Croagunk. It’s too salty and sunny of a place."

"Oh." I began studying the patterns of sunburn covering his skin. We'd been out for barely 10 minutes and they'd already been forming. "Why do you live here then?"

"Because I want to." He ‘meh heh heh'd’, turning away from me. "Hey, boss." We'd arrived at the Xatu-shaped tent.

...I wonder where all of the structures shaped like the Pokémon that manned them came from. At least the (now broken) Marowak Dojo was tasteful in design, but the others... less so.

"Hello Croagunk. Hello Ralts. I did not expect to see you today at the Xatu appraisal," he greeted jovially, his beak never opening.

"Meh heh heh. I'm taking Ralts here out for a walk," he said, and I felt slightly offended. I was not a dog!

"How kind of you." Xatu said. "I assume that all of those boxes there are for appraisal?"

Croagunk nodded and turned his satchel inside out. Out of it tumbled far more boxes than the room inside of the bag suggested, and suddenly the front of Xatu's shop was buried in tiny little crates of every kind.

"Meh heh heh. I assume you're not going to do even a small discount given how many I've brought?"

Xatu stood still for a moment before his eyes crinkled in what I thought might've been a smile. Maybe. I still couldn't read him. "I've looked in both my past and my future for you, and there hasn't or will be a single occasion in which I'll allow such a thing."

The two continued bantering between one another, before Xatu began levitating the boxes inside and began producing several squawking sounds, opening the boxes.

"Let the appraisal begin! Kweee...! Kweee...! KWAH! KWAHAH!" He spread his wings as he was turned around, and I barely heard a click over his squawking. "Within this box... was an Eevee tail!" he hollered, turning around and placing... well, the tail of an Eevee on the counter. The only difference was that it was a silvery color and not brown.

I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel about that, but Croagunk seemed to think that it was normal.

The process repeated several times. I grew bored of it by the 6th or 7th time. Grabbing the tail, I entertained myself by enjoying how puffy and plushy it felt. Which reminded me of the "friend" I'd made the other day.

Which I now would have to be responsible for looking over and making a rescue team with, risking my life countless times-

...yeah, that.

I absentmindedly began slipping away from Croagunk in a moment that I noticed he was distracted. Xatu side-eyed me (he side-eyed everyone, given his shape) but seemed content to let me go. I headed back to the forest trail that led to the beach. But, I wasn't heading to the beach, but to Eevee's house instead.

It took me a little while to find the tent due to it being located in the forest rather than in the middle of town like most of the merchants. However, from glances I snuck to other tents, it seemed that most Pokémon that did not run a business here. They preferred being within the forest rather than anywhere else.

I found the tent, its occupant nowhere in the vicinity. I poked my head in, but she was also not directly inside.

"Hiya!" Suddenly, I was tackled from behind, falling inside the tent in a heap and with a weight crashing hard in my back. "W-What are you doing here, v-villain? Hoping to s-steal the tent of-" The voice paused. "Oh, it's you Na- no, wait!" As I dazedly got up, I processed the flurry of emotions that Eevee had. She'd gone from anger, to surprise, back to anger. "You lied to me!"

"Wha?" I shook my head. I'd landed in the hay pile, so I didn't hit the ground as hard as I could've but still. "When did I lie to you?"

"You told me you were a Nate! You're not!" Her fur puffed up in what I assumed to be an intimidating gesture. To be fair, I was slightly afraid of a dog (of sorts) that was as tall as I was and quite a bit bigger otherwise suddenly being angry with me.

"I am Nate." I raised my hands in a placating gesture.

"No you're not! You're Ralts!" she barked at me. It was a lot more literal than you'd imagine.

I blinked. "I am a Ralts, yeah."

"Then why'd you tell me you were a Nate?" I was now extremely confused. What did she...?

Ah. Pokémon refer to each other by species.

"Ooooooooh. No, you don't get it. I am a Ralts. My name is Nate."

That seemed to take the wind out of her sails entirely, and she stopped puffing up and gave me an odd look as she radiated confusion. "Why would you tell me your litter name?"

Aaaand now it was my turn to be confused. "My what?"

"Your litter name. The name your mama gives you."

"...shouldn't I?"

"No! It's a personal thing!" She sniffed, before pausing. "I think."

"Oh. I didn't know that. I was born... uh..." I began counting the days. My first day, I was born in the dungeon, and then passed out, then I went to treasure town with Sunflora and that was another day, then two more spent in the guild, another excursion outside and I was poisoned for 4 days, and... yeah, that's it. "8 days ago?"

Her eyes bugged out, and she squeaked in surprise. "What?! You're so small! But I saw you get beat up by those bad guys in the plaza..."

"They didn't know I was a kid either, apparently." Size didn't matter much apparently in the Pokémon world.

"Those jerks..." she muttered, puffing up with anger.

"Yeah." I agreed. "Say, what were you doing before you tackled me?"

"Oh, I was, uh... exploring the forest around here. A lot of it is still unkempt, and occasionally I like to go on adventures through it."

"But aren't you afraid?" I asked bluntly. Mostly because I knew that the partner was a bit of a coward, and I had the social tact of a rock.

"I-!" She puffed up for a moment, before deflating. "A little. But I gotta! I-I have to become a great explorer!"

I stared at her. She stared at me. And then, Eevee's eyes bulged out. "I-I mean, I'm already a great explorer! But I have to become even better!"

...and this was the same person who would eventually go on to beat Dialga and save the world.

"Now you're lying to me." I told her. "I asked Chatot if you were a guild member and he told me no." That was, of course, a lie, but she didn't need to know that.

"Whaaaaat?! Oh no, oh no, oh no! My chances with the guild are ruined! They'll never take me knowing I lied to you!" She sobbed lightly. Uh-oh. As an empath, despair felt awful to feel, I couldn't even take hilarity in it.

"Uhhh, catch!" I tossed the Eevee tail at her, the first thing that came to mind as a distraction.

She turned around, and, lacking paws to grab onto the Eevee Tail we'd just acquired, she caught it in her mouth.

She paused for a second, her mouth opening and letting go of the tail.

She stared.

I stared.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELEBI IS THAT!" She screeched at the top of her lungs.

* * *

I will spare you the tantrum and run you through the events:

I tried to calm her down, taking a long time, before I told her it was found in a chest. After that, Eevee was skittish (heh) of it but also interested in the fact that it came from a Mystery Dungeon. After a while, she seemed to assess that it was fake, if creepily realistic.

She also confirmed that she felt the power that came from it, which was a good thing. Apparently it was very minor because she  _ barely _ felt it. But it was there.

I also ended up apologizing and telling her I didn't actually speak to Chatot, I just wanted to call her bluff. She calmed down considerably after that.

"Seriously though, did you have to spook me like that?" she grumbled. "You're a meanie."

"I already said I was sorry!" I sighed. "Besides, I'm feeling worse than you are, believe me." I mumbled, massaging my temples. I was nursing a severe headache caused by the negative emotions coupled with the point blank screeching.

"Also, where's the rock you were clutching the other day?" I asked, regaining my bearings.

"Huh? It's here." she moved past me to go to the bed of straw and began digging around, before turning back towards me with a happy expression and a rock clutched in her mouth. Ew. "Ish no' jus' a'y rock, i's 'y reshure!" she said before dropping it onto the ground for me to see.

And like before, I felt a pang of something at the sight of the Relic Fragment. The super important McGuffin without which the world would be doomed.

But, perhaps more importantly, I felt two more presences right outside the tent. "Huh?" I stood up and went to check outside. As I did so, I could hear the rapid flapping of wings and a shift in the wind. By the time I'd gotten outside, I only narrowly managed to catch the tail end of a Zubat flying away.

"Who was it?"

"No idea." I turned around to face her.

"Something here stinks." she said, sounding displeased.

"...what do you mean?" Oh no. What if she started worrying about someone stalking her, and she hid the Relic Fragment, and the plot started going in directions it shouldn't go? How important were team meanies-

"It smells like putrid berries or something." She complained, and began shoving her way through the flap. A moment after, the smell hit me. Eugh.

Alright, I panicked for nothing.

"Eugh... yeah..." I mumbled. "Geeze. Let's let the air clear for a moment." I said as we took a safe distance from the tent. Koffing really did a number on it with his presence.

"...do you want to go on an adventure?" Eevee asked all of a sudden.

"Hm?"

"It gets lonely out here. And..." I felt her cringing for a moment, closing her mouth. For a moment, on my lips was a joke about her wanting to do so to cover up the fact that she'd farted in there, but I paused. It wouldn't be nice for her, and by extension, for me.

Instead, a smile found its way on my features. "Sure. Where to?"

Eevee beamed with joy. "A little ways from here I found a little grove kept by a Lilligant, and it was full of all sorts of berries and apples!"

"Lead the way then!" We started jogging, but I paused. "Wait. Get your treasure."

"Huh? Why?"

"Well, thieves could get it, right? More and more mean Pokémon are showing up by the day."

"Oh, right!" she said, and went to grab the Relic Fragment, it now resting gripped in her tail. I had no idea how she did that, but there it goes.

"Well, off we go then!" I said, pretending to be ignorant of the two sources of displeasure in the treeline. Crisis averted. I had to make sure that by the time Eevee lost her fragment, it would be in a way that would allow us to beat the shit out of the perps.

* * *

I eventually returned to Croagunk, who hadn't even bothered looking for me and just assumed that I'd show up at one point. We mercifully managed to make it back to the guild without Chimecho ever finding out about my little adventure. She was cross with me for going out despite her wishes, but apparently my decision of borrowing Croagunk rather than just ignoring Chimecho's advice had earned me brownie points.

I spoke more with Xatu, but he had nothing more than cryptic bullshit to offer me. This time, he'd left me with a "Have you ever spoken with Duskull? I think you may find something that will surprise you, eventually."

...whatever the hell that meant.

The following days kept passing in a similar fashion. Bug a member of the guild to bring me outside, get to Eevee's house, hang with her. Once the guild realized that I was at least semi-consistently going to Eevee's place and not getting myself killed, I was even allowed to go there on my own.

Xatu left eventually, and interestingly enough, Chansey, Marowak and Electivire left together as well, though on their own devices. Very weird coincidences, to be honest. At least I knew why Marowak was doing so, something related to the resurgence of his dojo. I had no idea why the other two left, though.

By the end of the 5th day, I was feeling all kinds of antsy. Why is nothing happening? Why isn't Eevee deciding to join the guild, or the two assholes trying to steal her fragment, or anything?

Try as I may, I couldn't get any sleep that night.

I stood up from my cot, eventually, after I felt Chimecho and Sunflora settle into sleep. I waddled over and out of the room, before being met with a familiar figure.

One thing that would never stop surprising me, and never fail to remind me of the situation I was in, was that everything was massive. Chatot stood outside of the door to the Guildmaster's room.

"Ah, Ralts." Chatot turned towards me. "You should not be out of your room yet. Are you thinking perhaps of sneaking out at night again?" he looked at me suspiciously.

"N-no, sir." Certainly not now that I've seen you.

"Good. What do you need, then?" he asked curtly. He felt... frustrated. At me, in particular- was me being here that annoying? Well fuck him too.

"What's up with you?" I said, not managing quite as much bite as I meant due to having to whisper. Especially since he apparently took it as concern, because he schooled himself into something more normal.

"It has been a harrowing two weeks, trying to find your parents. I thought that they would be in contact with any of the major psychics to look for the news, but alas it doesn't appear that way. I only pray that they haven't succumbed to..." he muttered, trailing off. "A-Anyways!"

Right, my "parents." I wonder if I was an egg spawned into existence to begin with, or something else.

"It's okay. My parents probably weren't that great if they just left me there." I trailed off. Could we call the mysterious voice that shaped me into a Pokémon technically my "parent"?

...probably not.

"Don't say that!" Chatot half-squawked, half whispered. "I-I'm sure that-"

"I was thinking of becoming a member of the guild anyways." I cut him off. I didn't really know how else to go about telling him, so I decided this moment was as good as any.

I'm proud to say that as soon as I felt the slightest bit of mounting panic in Chatot's voice I managed to reach out and clamp down on his beak, given how close we were, so he didn't shout. He clearly let me, otherwise I doubt I would have done so much as tug him downwards, but the end result was still him letting out a strangled half-yell. Thankfully not loud enough to wake anyone else. "WHat-!"

"People are sleeping, sir." I urged him. Now that he'd gotten himself under control he was looking up at me from under his beak, lifted up in the hair and hanging by it.

He  _ slowly _ let me down, and then he began to shout, but in a lower voice. I was pretty sure that he was still going to wake someone up, with his frantic flapping and voice, but I at least tried. I was starting to think that this was not such a good idea. What if he suddenly prohibits me from going out or something similar!?

"Are you aware of how difficult our training regime is?! How many Pokémon come in the guild, begging to be let in, trying to deal with our expectations only to be let down?! What about the dangers of the dungeon?! I can't just let someone as young as you go explore!"

"But what if then the world doesn't get saved because- because something horrible happened, and the only thing that can stop the bad guys is me?" I said, forcing myself to adopt a more childish tone. FUUUUUUUCK, I almost let Chatot's panic drag me into saying something I shouldn't have!

"Wh-" Chatot paused for a moment. "Why would the world need saving?" I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. He felt... relieved? Though I have no idea as to why.

I bit my lip. What now? The world DID need saving, but I can't just up and tell him that a Dusknoir from the future is just going to try and put an end to time together with a demented god?

I... Mystery Dungeon 1 has happened, right...?

"Mom told me... that some brave Pokémon fought and defeated an evil Rayquaza and forced it to destroy a meteor that was going to destroy the world. What if another Rayquaza needs to be beaten up?" What if the world faces another calamity? What if we need somebody who can resist the Roar of Time?

...I don't even know if I could, to be honest. My typing gives me an advantage, but...

"That is not exactly how the tale of team Go Getters should be retold..." Embarrassment and relief flooded Chatot. "But..." he sighed. "As a Guildmaster's assistant, it is my job to keep in check what can and cannot happen. If-"

"Does that mean that if I get the Guildmaster's permission it's alright?!" I cut him off.

"I-" he flapped his wings furiously, looking aghast. "Well- you should-" and after that, a distressed sound came out of his throat as we heard the creaking sound of the Guildmaster's quarter's doors opening, revealing the huge form of the guildmaster, the massive (I still hadn't a frame of reference for height, so I couldn't tell you just how big, but like... me times 4) plush with big blue eyes looking down on us.

"Tralala~" he tittered. "Where is Mr. Snuggly?" he asked himself, looking around.

I sagely took a few steps back as Chatot flapped in front of Wigglytuff. "G-Guildmaster, you-"

"Right in front of you!" I informed him. Wigglytuff snored lightly, once, then twice as Chatot looked at me with a shocked expression.

"Hehe, so it is-," muttered the guildmaster, and before Chatot could do anything he was snatched up in a vice grip.

"G-G-G-Guildmaster!" Chatot stammered, trying to wiggle his way out of the Wiggly. He was dying of embarrassment, but there was also an undercurrent of... enjoyment?

I suddenly felt embarrassed myself at what I realized, and quickly ducked my way back into my room as a sleepwalking Wigglytuff carried Chatot into his quarters. Nope. Nope. What Chatot enjoyed was not my business.

...and shut up, I'm a kid, I'm allowed to enjoy the world's biggest plush.

...that is probably a better explanation for what I felt. Why did my mind go immediately to Chatot having gay thoughts regarding Wigglytuff.

Eugh. My sleepy brain is a mess.

Alright, that is it, I'm going to sleep now. Making my way to the bed.

But now I can't get that image out of my head. How would it work- NO! STOP!

...in this world, we're all technically nude. My "gown" is made of my own skin, and the only reason my intimates don't show is-

GAH!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I met a bit of a slump around these days, and I apologize for the long wait, but this chapter is finally here. :) We finally get to meet Croagunk and there's more shenanigans with Eevee, but not much else to say. 
> 
> No additional scenes today :( I haven't been feeling 100%, and next chapter will probably be delayed as well. I'm sorry for that.


	7. Conflicted Cravings

_ "Thank you for saving me, Mr's!" Cleffa said to her two saviors. They'd been big and intimidating, but then they'd brought her out of the dungeon and had shared their food with her when she was hungry, and now she was riding on the tall and cool one's shoulders! _

_ "Yeah, I'm glad too... just, uh, don't do that again, that place was a fucking nightmare..." one commented. *Gasp!* That was a bad word! _

_ "Must you always be so crass? Especially in front of children." Dusknoir muttered darkly. _

_ "Oh, look who it is, Mr. Doom and Gloom suddenly having a change of heart. Not like you had to go through a typing disadvantage for the entire dungeon. And the area surrounding Mt. Bristle is hellish in and of itself." _

_ "Then you shouldn't have chosen this mission." _

_ "Don't even say that. We had to save Cleffa here. Or are you saying that was a bad move? I'm ready to beat the shhhhhtuffing out of you." Cleffa giggled at the slurred out word. The other Mr. did look like a giant plush! Not at all like the one carrying her, who was full of sharp edges and blades. But his shoulders were free, so it was okay. _

_ "Hey, Mr. Sharpy? Is it okay if I sleep here?" she asked him. _

_ He tilted his head. "Alright. I could offer some help falling asleep?" she looked around. The mountain trail was scary... she'd never seen this part of home. _

_ "Y-yes please. Tell me a story?" she asked. _

_ "I'll do you one better." He slowly grabbed her from his back, making sure that none of the sharp edges on his body came into contact with her. Suddenly, his eyes glowed a soft blue, and before long, Cleffa found herself falling prey to the hypnosis, snoring quietly. _

_ "Do you think you could hold her for a moment? I need to get something in the bag." Dusknoir glared silently as his companion offered the child to him, but still grabbed her. His ghostly fingers, unfeeling, almost slipped through her body to reach out to her soul, but he managed to keep a firm hold. _

_ "I was not joking earlier. Why do you insist on taking up this kind of mission." He demanded. "We are making very little headway in locating our fugitives." _

_ "It's fine. So long as they don't start messing things up, we can just dawdle and wait. Besides, we'll hear soon enough of a Grovyle and a Human, the latter isn't exactly hard to miss." the other replied, still rummaging, when suddenly something came out of the woodwork. _

_ "Hey. Hey. Are you guys intending on keeping that?" A yellow Pokémon with a pendulum in hand and a sinister smile painted on his face asked them. "I could pay a pretty Poké for that. Her dreams-" _

_ "Not another tilt of your pendulum if you intend on keeping your life." Dusknoir warned, his shadow already creeping forward. _

_ The Hypno blinked. "Of course, of course." He said, gathering up the string. "Now, where was I? Ah, yes, the child... she seems just so... inviting..." he was salivating. "A child, and a fairy type at that..." _

_ "...are there more of your kind around here, I assume?" Dusknoir asked, cutting straight to the chase. _

_ "Hmm? Ah, yes, smart, smart!" The yellow dream-eater clapped politely. "You've crossed into our territory... but we don't have to fight..." _

_ "That's right, we don't." Suddenly, in a flurry of motion, one of the blades that ran along the arm of Dusknoir's companion glowed in rainbow colors, before he rammed the Secret Sword with incredible speed into the Hypno. _

_ He gasped out in pain. "You-" _

_ "That was your first and last warning, fiend. Leave us alone." he said, kicking away the injured Pokémon, who scurried into the trees yelling to other members of his clan of "Alert! Alert!" _

_ Dusknoir turned to the other, his yellow eye turning red with anger. "Must you always do this? Saving this child is futile, and you're injured already. Why bother putting us in these situations?" _

_ "I know we're here to stop time and all, but if the Pokémon are going to get stuck for eternity with one thought in mind, I want it to be something happy. We owe it to them." _

_ "And yet you didn't kill the Hypno with a Night Slash so that he would no longer hurt anyone? You have a strange set of morals." Dusknoir grumbled. _

_ "Yeah, yeah. Just cover me with Night Shade, I'll take care of the rest." And then, the night descended into a (bloodless) slaughter of a Hypno clan. _

_ Cleffa snored away peacefully, dreaming of playing in the pond with her friend Cutiefly. _

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, I realized that the two others that I'd been rooming with were already gone, and in fact, I'd woken up naturally instead of receiving the Loudred special. Or maybe I had and just didn't wake up. I spent way too much time agonizing over the stupidest things that my brain could conjure.

Yawning, I saw myself out of the room and felt guilt begin to hit me as I thought about what I was going to do today.

Which was... go out, find Eevee, and play until nightfall, then go back to the guild, eat, and that was it.

...to be honest, that plan kinda sucked.

And I'd told Chatot that I wanted to become an explorer, but it wasn't like I had any idea how. My game plan consisted of "letting the plot happen to me", which, now that I think about it, is nonsensical bull (Tauros?) shit.

And... especially after that dream last night, that I can barely remember at all beyond Dusknoir being in them, and these last few days'... yearnings, that I felt when I passed even vaguely close to Beach Cave...

Something in me wants to fight. I... do not know where this feeling comes from, but it's like a sort of pent-up anger that demands I beat the shit out of someone. One that I recognize as being all my own, for once.

What that meant was that I wanted to slip away and go to the closest dungeon I could think of: Beach Cave.

"We are concerned." I heard Dugtrio speak to his son... their son? "Chatot came out looking very frazzled from the Guildmaster's room right before the morning cheer. Three can only wonder what the two of them have talked about that would shake him that much."

I could barely suppress a snicker at that, getting 4 Digletts' worth of stares headed in my direction. Right, right. Moving along.

Scampering up both ladders I made my way up, briefly pausing to marvel that now I could climb up stairs with very little difficulty. They- and by they I totally mean me- grow up so fast!

I paused. Actually- ugh. I need items.

...did I  _ need _ items though?

If I had any idea of what level I was, assuming there exists such a thing as levels (probably not) I could tell how much I required things such as items and heals.

Going into a dungeon alone is... a bad idea. Going into a dungeon without proper equipment is a worse idea.

...Beach Cave has only like, six floors and no boss though...

I could... probably sneak out a few items from the guild? Say "Oh, I want to have a nice lunch with Eevee" and grab Orans and Apples and hide some seeds, maybe. But that sounds like an easy way to get grounded.

I could maybe grab something from the Kecleon stall and Teleport away?

...yeah, if I wanted my guts ripped out and splayed on pikes in Treasure Town as a warning I could do that. I felt a shudder down my spine just at  _ thinking _ about stealing from those guys.

As I thought about that, I'd made my way down to the Kecleon Mart without even noticing. To be fair, all the stall owners on this side of the bridge minus Duskull (who for the life of me I cannot feel his emotions) were gone, and there was no one else going about either.

"Hey, little friend?" I blinked, tuning back into the world as I heard Kecleon (The green one)'s surprisingly raspy voice call out. "Caught ya staring. Were you here to take note of our berry inventory today too? You're gonna run poor Bidoof out of a job!" he said, before beginning to chortle together with his brother.

Ah. I was staring. I... "Ah, no, not today... You look nice though." I complimented him. It always seemed to work when my girlfriend caught me spacing off or actually staring at her.

...Vanessa...

I bit my tongue, snapping out of that mournful thought as I saw the skin around Kecleon's cheeks turn to a bright red to contrast the green. That- is that intentional?

"Ah- uh- I mean-" his stammers were cut off by the wheezing laughter of his brother, doubling over the counter. "Yeah! Why don't you thank your little- hahahahah- your little admirer?"

Well now we were two people feeling awkward.

"Uhm. Excuse me? Could we buy something?" I heard a squeaky voice behind me. "Misters Kecleon?"

Taking a step back as I turned, I met face to face with a ball-shaped blue mousy creature with a white stomach- Marill. Behind him, another similar looking creature with a far too thin tail that ended in another blue ball, bouncing on it. It was disconcerting to see them being almost as tall as I was.

However, I was realizing something else that was just slightly more disconcerting.

"Ah, little Marill and Azurill! Welcome my young friends!" The green Kecleon greeted.

It's a whole 2 fucking plot dungeons that I've missed already. I thought I had more time!

"Where... is Team Skull?" I whispered in a hiss to myself as I took another few steps back to let them make their purchases, handing a few coins and receiving a bundle of cloth in exchange.

"Thank you, Mr Kecleons!" Marill said as they bought their apple.

"No, thank you my friends! You are to be admired!" The green Kecleon called back, waving at them as they hopped away.

"Don't tell my mean younger brother, but I gave them an extra apple. They deserve it." the Green Kecleon said, snapping me out of my reverie and winking at me. I think it was a wink, he blinked only one eye and I felt mischief emanating.

I needed items. Right the fuck now. And the best way to get them is-

...humiliating, but functional. I got close to the stall once again, raising my head enough that my eyes were into view and making my best impression of a kicked puppy. "Can I have something too?" The Kecleon recoiled as if struck.

"I- I mean-" he stammered out, his eyes wide as saucers. More puppy eyes attacked. "Do-"

"Can I have that?!" I asked, spotting something among the wares. It was a blue acorn looking berry. Maybe it would be what I needed!

"Oh. The Chesto Berry?" I nodded emphatically, only feeling a little guilty at the way the Kecleon cringed. "They're my favorite!"

"...s-sure, here you go little guy." he said, grabbing and handing it over to me. "Just don't go telling other kids, okay?" I nodded eagerly and grabbed the fruit.

Now, that was another lie. Chesto Berries were approximately what drinking coffee was like as a kid. It sucked ass, though instead of being bitter, it was dry. Suck all the water out of your mouth kind of-

Oof.

I blinked as a rolling ball collided with me, sending me sprawling to the floor and with me the Chesto Berry.

"Ah! Sorry!" Someone embarassedly replied. Looking up, the blue mouse from earlier had collided with me. "Are you alright?"

"Aaaah." I drew out the sound. "I think I've been slain. The light... I can see it..." All of this was said in a deadpan.

I was met with three contrasting reactions. Concern mixed with amusement from the purple Kecleon (the green one was still sulking), amusement from the Marill, and panic from the Azurill.

"Marill! We've gotta help her!" Something inside me ticked.

"Now listen here you little fu-" I restrained myself at the last moment, remembering that these were children, and it wouldn't look good on me either to curse.

"Looks good to me, Azurill." Marill tittered. "Anyways... oh no! One of the apples is going down the stream!"

As I turned to look, the apple neared the edge of the waterfall.

"No!" Marill cried.

...and there it went. While the poles set up there were enough to prevent most Pokémon from falling off the cliff edge, an apple was definitely not among the things that it would prevent.

"I'll go get it." I sighed. ...how did one do this again? I bit my tongue, trying to concentrate as hard as I could on my forehead. Then, I imagined where the apple would go- the gently flowing waters, rushing into a miniscule waterfall that went off the cliff and into a small artificial pond that sat next to a tent that fit the trademark look of the town.

"There." I mumbled to myself. One moment I was in front of Kecleon's shop, the other I was in a completely different place.

Specifically, in the pond.

Falling into the water, my eyes widened as I gasped in surprise at the coldness of it, robbing myself of precious air. Spotting my mark, I grabbed onto the apple, holding it.

Now, however, came another problem. Namely, getting back up.

I'd been in the water for barely fifteen seconds and I already felt my lungs constrict, trying to breathe and not managing. The pond looked small from the outside- and it was.

Two problems with that.

First, I never swam with this body, and hadn't realized up until now how much my fur soaked in water. The fact that Chimecho typically hung me outside to dry made much more sense now.

Second... as I said, the pond was pretty small.

I was smaller, and by comparison, it was a decently huge body of water.

Looking up, eyes wide with panic as I moved hair out of my face, I saw a red shape moving towards me. Suddenly, I was wrenched forward and out of the water by a tentacle that gripped my midsection.

I wheezed. And coughed. And there was a moment where I might have spat out a lot of water, but I couldn't be sure.

"I'd seen an apple fall into the water, but I didn't think that anyone would just jump off the cliff to go and retrieve it!" The octopus in front of me said, surprised. "Are you well, lad?"

"Thank-" I gasped. "Thank you, Octillery sir." I said, fishing the Pokémon out of my memory. It would've taken me less, were it not for the fact that it would've been as tall as your average house if I'd been my former height and it was scaled up to it. Actually, a little larger. "And also thank you for not eating the apple."

"Don't mention it." he sighed wistfully. "I wouldn't have eaten it even if it didn't belong to anyone. Lately I've been craving something a little more... you know..." he looked at me. He felt desire, and hunger. I swallowed.

"Uh... no...?" please tell me I didn't stumble upon a cannibal please please does he mean something fleshy-

"Complex!" he slapped the ground, feeling as though he'd finally gotten the word he was looking for. "When you've lived for as long as I did, apples, berries, everything starts to become a little boring." he sighed.

"Oh." I said, snapping out of my panic. "That's sad. I think Mr. Spinda might be able to help you with that?" I said.

"Truly?" he said as he put me down, seeming excited. "I have seen the sign in town, of him making a "Cafe", whatever that word may mean. I'll go and talk to him then. Thank you, lad!" He hollered, and began climbing up the cliff with his suckers.

...okay then. Now I was dripping wet, with an Apple in hand, and nothing else.

"Hey!" I heard a voice call out. "You found our Apple!" running- rolling towards me, and prompting me to dodge as he was about to run into me again, was Marill, followed by Azurill, and- "Thank you!" he stopped a little off from me, before getting up and hugging me with his tiny little limbs.

Um. I was being hugged by a ball-shaped blue mouse.

"Thank you!" Azurill boinged up to me, bumping into me as well but lacking limbs for a proper hug.

"That was very kind of you, kid." a third voice joined in, way deeper than the others as I turned around. Interestingly enough, I couldn't feel his presence unlike Azurill and Marill's.

In front of me was a large Pokémon, with a yellow torso, arms, and head and brown legs ending in hooves. His face had pointy eyes, a snout with a short proboscis, and ears right above the eyes.

"I was just finishing up telling young Marill and Azurill about their lost item. They seemed a little clumsy, and I noticed them dropping it a while off." the Drowzee tittered at that. Sick fuck.

"Oh yeah! Mr. Drowzee even offered us to help look for it!" he said, with Azurill nodding emphatically.

"Indeed. Shall we be off, then, now that you've gotten your lost Apple?" the yellow pachiderm asked.

"Sure!" "Yeah!" the two agreed.

This was it. I could just thwart this guy's plan, never let him do anything wrong to the two of them. Unlike the protagonist, I don't just have a hunch- I have complete knowledge. Sure, it turns out well in the end, but only because of others intervening. So, logically, I should just report him back to the guild.

But...

An image of Beach Cave passed through my mind's eye. Then of Gligar. And lastly, that of a fucking Bagon.

**_Fight._ **

I really wanted to beat the shit out of this creep myself.

"Could I come along?" I asked, tilting my head to appear cute.

"I- I'm sure that it would just be boring for you, lad-"

"Pleeeease? Can our friend come with?" Marill made puppy dog eyes at him as well.

"Please?" Azurill echoed.

...when had we become friends? I guess recovering an apple is the ultimate proof of friendship?

He sighed. It was disturbing how little of him I could figure out without my (literal) sixth sense working on him. "Very well. But we should make haste. Who knows when a bad Pokémon might take your item away!" Oh you fucking son of a bitch.

"We got your Chesto Berry for you too." Marill informed me, producing from a small satchel the aforementioned berry. I hadn't noticed that before. How does he grip things?

"Hold it for now. I have nothing to carry it with." I told him. I forgot the most basic thing, an adventuring satchel.

As we moved, heading towards the exit of Treasure Town, I turned back one last time, staring at the guild. The empty-eyed massive Wigglytuff bust staring proudly over the town at the top of the cliff.

_ I could stop all of this now. _

Another image flashed in my mind, that of a Dusknoir surrounded by Sableyes. My breath hitched, and I turned back to catch up to Azurill.

Then again, do I not need to get stronger to face all the shit coming my way?

Yes, that must be it. It makes sense. 

* * *

Today was a grand day. It was the day that Toffee finally took all of her courage in her paws and asked to become an apprentice of the guild.

See, to a passing glance, she was playing games and simply making friends with a kid that she met one day, but she was  _ actually  _ on a spying mission!

Or- information gathering? Reconnaissance? Scouting!

She was scouting out, figuring out things about the Wigglytuff Guild. What type of Pokémon they allowed in, what was the strength of their apprentices, how did they operate.

And hanging around Na- _ Ralts, _ was the perfect occasion for that! Sure, he was an oddball, but he wasn’t a bad Pokémon (more and more of them were popping out lately with how time was breaking down) despite scaring her to death with the tail trick and she finally had someone younger than her to deal with, though sometimes it didn’t seem like it. Even as babies, Psychic Pokémon were smaaaart…

  
  


_ "Oh, Toffee. I know it's hard to figure things out right now, but I promise that with time and dedication you too will be able to understand these." Peppermint's paw pointed to the Unown runes, the red gem on her forehead lighting up as she focused on them for a moment before turning back to her. "Of course, that is so long as you be a good girl and remember to never touch any evolutionary stone." She giggled. _

As she thought about that she faltered, the pep in her step fading until she was standing at attention, before shaking her head. This was no time to think about home. This was time for action!

And the first thing she was going to do was find Ralts. He could set things up with Mr. Chatot so that she could join the guild.

Except.

She couldn't find the white and green biped anywhere!

She'd looked all over Treasure Town, asked around, but all she got was that he'd gone by the Kecleon Market and met with Azurill and Marill, before going off somewhere.

Something gripped in her chest. Had he already found other friends to substitute her with?

_ Poprock sighed, bouncing on his legs. "C'mon Toffee! I know you liked them, but we're your family! Surely you prefer us to those dumb butts?" He asked, bumping into her and making her jump at the pain of him releasing a bit of static energy into her fur. Laughter filled her ears as the others laughed at her puffed up everything. _

She grit her teeth. If he wanted to play with others, it was fine. Not like he was hers or something.

She needed somewhere to relax. As she forced herself to move from in front of Kangashkan's deposit who was staring concernedly at her, she found her legs carrying her towards the beach. That was her special place.

Soon, she laid down in the sand and found herself sighing. This sucked. Everything sucked. She was all alone, far away from home, and too much of a coward to just go and join the guild by herself-

“Gah!” she said, tumbling away and into the sea as something collided with her. “What the-”

“Sorry brat. Meant to hit ya harder than that.” she turned around, in time to face a Koffing. The noxious ball of gas was laughing at her face.

“What’s wrong with you!” She said, before wrinkling her nose, and turning away. “Eugh… oh!” she noticed that her treasure had slipped away from her tail’s hold. “My treasure!”

“Treasure this, treasure that… all I see is a piece of rock. But if she says it’s a treasure, it must have some kind of worth, ain’t that right, Koffing?” Zubat guffawed. “We’ll be taking that!”

She reeled back as she saw the flying type swipe her treasure between his teeth.

“Y-you can’t do that!” she shrieked.

“Oh? And why not?” The Koffing floated closer to her, making her take a step back. “You’ll call that baby freak down on us? But he’s not here to guard you today, is he?” with that last sentence, he belched noxious gases on the Eevee’s face.

“Gah!” she stumbled backwards, her heightened sense of smell making the putridness that much more unbearable.

“Come on, Zubat. Let’s leave this coward.” the Koffing called, and began floating away followed by his cohort.

Eevee shook her head, before taking a few steps backwards and dunking her face into the sea in an attempt to get hear bearings straight after that attack. By the time she was fine again, the duo was gone, headed towards Beach Cave.

“Uwahhh…” her eyes teared up. That was a Mystery Dungeon! Sure, she’d trained up to be an apprentice, but that was… that was…

“*hic* What… what do I do now? They… they…” she was breathing hard, panicking.

_ Toffee kept running, Quick Attack empowering her mad dash through the forest. She couldn’t be fast enough, couldn’t leave this place soon enough. Her stomach was rumbling, her bag had been stolen by the ferals long ago, and the last of her strength was rapidly draining. _

_ She chanced a look behind herself. Two red insectoid eyes stared at her, following at high speed, as the dragon made its way towards her. The buzz of its wings that made a sound similar to a sweet song, the very thing that lured her in the first place now a warning that she wasn’t putting on the speed hard enough. The trio of angry lines that raced through her tail screaming with every bounding leap she took. _

_ Drawing on the last bit of strength she had, she bolted. _

Eyes wide, she stared at the mouth of the cave, trembling. “I… they… in the Dungeon…” she mumbled, trying to shake herself free of the spell she’d worked herself into.

“C-c’mon Toffee, you’re a brave girl… just think of what that wimp Ginger would say if you turned tail and ran…” she forced herself free, shaking her head. “I… I have to do this. I have to get my treasure back, it’s all… I’ve got…” she mumbled, taking a shaking step towards the cave.

“Y-yeah. This… is… the first real adventure of Toffee... explorer and discoverer of secrets… extraordinaire…” she sobbed a little, the hiccup turning into a bit of nervous laughter at the last moment. “Y-yeah! N-no bully will ever get me to back down!” she shouted.

With one last look behind herself towards Treasure Town, she slammed her paw on the ground. She wouldn’t back down now.

Those meanies would know the wrath of Toffee!

* * *

**Omake:** In which Nate is just ever so slightly more like the author of this fanfiction. Or, you know, a caricature of him.

**Canon Level:** Aggressively Italian Ralts (0/10)

"MAMMA MIA!" I hollered, unable to believe what was going on. "IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL FOOD?!"

"Is there anything wrong with tonight's dinner?" Chimecho tilted her head in confusion.

"Dov'è la pasta? La pizza? I quintali di matriciana?₁" I cried at the injustice. "Why are there only berries here?!"

"Um." Chimecho paused. "Did you expect for there to be... other food? I did not know your species to be carnivorous..."

"Lurida figlia di puttana te lo faccio vedere io il carnivoro!₂" Thankfully Chimecho was not able to understand the content of my words at the moment. "No bread? No cheese?! You've got Miltank's, you can make cheese!"

"What's cheese?" Sunflora asked, entering the room.

"I have no idea. He's been like this and gesticulating wildly ever since seeing what it was that we were going to make for dinner. I think he wants milk, since he mentioned Miltanks?"

"Ma che latte e latte ma te lo faccio vedere io il latte ti tiro una manata che te la ricordi...₃" I grumbled. "At least I can understand what you're like despite the fact you make no sign to indicate what you're saying, grazieaiDdio..."

"I have no idea what half of what he's saying means." Chimecho complained.

"Funghi?₄ At least you've got mushrooms, I hope?" I pleaded.

"Um. No?"

"Merda!" I cursed. "Madò, se vi sentisse mia nonna vi avrebbe tirato una ciabatta a tutti quanti...₅ Alright, that's it. I now know my new purpose in the world."

"And that would be?" Sunflora asked.

"To make you eat decently!"

"Meh heh heh. Hey Nate, I heard you complain about cooking and found this. Hey, when did you grow a must-"

Before he could even finish the sentence, my eyes had zeroed in on what he had in hand. It was a yellow fruit, not spiky as the one that it was simulating, but a close enough representation that it made my eye twitch.

It must've been in a burst of emotion, thus, that psychic energy exited my body and exploded the Pinap Berry in his hand, showering the three of them in juice. "MA VAFFANCULO!₆" I raised my arm to accompany the insult.

_ ₁ "Where's the pasta? The pizza? The quintal (roughly 220 pounds) of matriciana?!" _

_ ₂ "You lurid bitch I'll show you who's the carnivorous!" _

_ ₃ "What milk and milk (a way of mocking something someone says) I'll show you milk, gonna slap you so hard that you'll remember..." _

_ ₄ "Mushrooms?" _

_ ₅ "Shit! Sweet Mary, if my grandma could hear you, she would've thrown a slipper at each of you..." _

_ ₆ (very energetically) "OH FUCK OFF!" _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back with another chapter, where Nate finally realizes that the world goes on even without him and we get some more insight into Toffee's character! She's actually my favorite in this fic :)
> 
> If you enjoyed, please leave a comment! It never fails to make me happy to hear what you guys have to say. Also, thank you so much for 1200 hits on this story!
> 
> Also, just to make things clear; Hypnos and Drowzees are not pedophiliac or rapist. They simply feed off of the mind of other Pokémon, and that makes them predatory by nature. While Nate associates them to such examples of terrible moral character, there's not going to be any example of rape or such things in my story, rest assured.
> 
> See you next time!


	8. First Foray into Dungeon Dwelling

As it turns out, the road to Mt. Bristle took… more walking time than I imagined.

  
  


“How close are we?” I asked, somewhere next to what I assumed to be the half an hour mark. I was not tired, but also not at 100%, my tiny body betraying me with the amount of steps I had to take to cover any significant distance. At least the outings in the forest with Eevee had made sure that I was used to walking for a decent amount of time…

  
  


“Halfway there, young Ralts.” the edges of Drowzee’s eyes crinkled as he turned back to stare at me.

  
  


“Aah…” I made a sound. Wasn’t this the correct mountain?

  
  


As I turned to look, I noticed that the one that we were traversing by had a waterfall coming down it, which I guess would explain the river that we were passing by…

  
  


I would kill for a map of which dungeon was where. But why was Mount Bristle so _far?_

  
  


“If you’re getting tired, I insist that you go back to Treasure Town, Ralts.” Drowzee told me. If it wasn’t liable to get me in danger, I would’ve given him the stink eye.

  
  


As Marill and Azurill turned to give me concerned looks from where they were doing small talk, I shook my head. “No sir. I just thought it was odd that the item Marill and Azurill lost was so far…” I said.

  
  


“Yeah, why’s that Mr. Drowzee?” Marill asked.

  
  


“Well, you see…” He hummed. “It is very simple.” he waited for a few moments.

  
  


“Well?” I asked. This guy was already on my nerves, but he was also a shit liar? The only thing he had going for himself was being a better psychic type than me, it seemed. “Marill, do you want to pass me the bag? I can carry it easier.” I added, feeling an urge to get my Chesto Berry near myself.

  
  


“Last I saw your precious item, it was in the clutches of a bad Pokémon, who was heading towards. We’re going to retrieve it!” he hollered out.

  
  


“What?!” Marill gasped. “A bad Pokémon?!”

  
  


“That’s scary…” Azurill muttered.

  
  


“But worry not. With me to defend you, we’ll get it back in no time!”

  
  


I stared at him. Wow. WOW. This guy, of all people, defending us from bad Pokémon.

  
  


I could pick up the irony with a spoon and eat it.

  
  


...I needed a Bent Spoon, or whatever was it called. That was probably useful.

  
  


The feeling of raring for a fight only grew in my horns as we resumed walking towards that dungeon.

  
  


And soon, as I ran through my moves and what I knew how to do, trying to formulate a plan, we began entering into a lower part of the hill.

  
  


Soon, we set foot in a fissure in the ground where the walls around us began growing taller and taller. Or rather, we went lower and lower.

  
  


Soon, Mount Bristle was upon us.

  
  


“Hey Marill, c’mere.” I watched as Drowzee called Marill up to the front of the formation, whispering a few things to him. Soon after, Marill turned around, bounding first towards me, and kept walking past. His eyes looked lost.

  
  


“Hey, Marill-” I called out myself, shifting my gaze. What-

  
  


“Hold up, brat.” Drowzee’s sudden change of tone caught me off guard. I froze on the spot, slowly turning around and seeing him clutch an unconscious Azurill by the tail. Shit, I hadn't even been considering his brother!

  
  


“What did you-!” I grit my teeth, staring at him as he made a “stop” motion with his paw.

  
  


“You knew about me, didn’t you?” He grinned. “Don’t think I haven’t heard of you. The Wigglytuff Guild’s bratling. And the way you swindled a Chesto Berry from the Kecleon mart as soon as you passed near me, the way you stared at me with barely held in contempt. I saw all of that.” I didn’t even know that I’d passed near him… even then, could I not sense him?

  
  


“You thought you could get one over me, beat me up like some kind of hero, huh? Well, lookie here.” he grinned. “One wrong move, and your friend’s gonna be in real trouble. Dream Eater can do much more than its namesake, you know? So now you be a good boy and act as my hostage. Or else…” purple smoke began trailing out of the unconscious Azurill’s nostrils, before snapping back in.

  
  


I breathed hard, staring wide-eyed at the Drowzee as I realized the gravity of the situation I was in.

  
  


_I was completely out of my depth._

  
  


Looking at the way he was hovering a hand menacingly over Azurill, there was only one thing I could do- nod sharply, which seemed to please him.

  
  


“Let’s go then!” he let out a bark of laughter, turning towards the Mistery Dungeon, dragging Azurill. “You go in first.”

  
  


Only one thing I could think about that. _Well, fuck me with a shovel._

* * *

"Hello Chatot." Chimecho trilled, feeling pleased with herself.

  
  


This was her normal mood, as of lately. She'd finally gotten a break from looking after Ralts every moment of the day, feeling satisfied that Ralts had finally gotten it in his head that he could not go and fight everyone he came across.

  
  


Well, not yet anyways. The guild prided itself on the fighting prowess of its members, though it wasn't as intent on that as much as the Aggron or Conkeldurr guild, focusing more on unity and helping out others in more ways than just seeking out criminals.

  
  


"Chimecho! Working hard as usual?" Chatot greeted. "Sometimes it feels like this entire guild is composed of me, the Guildmaster, you and a bunch of Slakoths." he said huffily.

  
  


"Haha. I'm sure that they're trying their best. Whismur seemed pretty dejected at the news though..." she informed him.

  
  


"News?" Chatot tilted his head to the side.

  
  


"Yes. Espeon has informed me that Luminous Spring has seemingly stopped working properly, instead causing weird effects to the Pokémon attempting to evolve. They have been since warning off any Pokémon coming."

  
  


"What weird effects are we talking about?" 

  
  


"Well... apparently, she saw a Vulpix step into the spring, and rather than going through the evolution process or being judged unworthy, its shape changed entirely. It is quite traumatized, having become an Ice type, and it seems to be causing snowstorms wherever it goes due to its distress. Shall we issue a bounty to catch it alive and unharmed?"

  
  


"That is a dreadful event indeed! No, no, we cannot allow any of the guild's apprentices to step foot into the spring!" Chatot began flapping his wings in distress. "I'd go myself, but..."

  
  


Chimecho giggled. "It is alright, captain. Paperwork is a monster only people such as yourself can defeat."

  
  


"Hmph!" Chatot preened for a moment, before returning to himself. "If you happen to see them before I do, do notify Team Glee and Team Flame to see me as soon as possible."

  
  


"Yessir. Oh, one more thing..."

  
  


"Hey, hey?!" Corphish strode into view, grabbing the both of their attentions.

  
  


"Oh, Corphish. Already back from your item acquisition at the Drenched Bluff?" Chimecho felt her stomach knot at the cursed dungeon being mentioned. Only metaphorically though, she'd grown past the days where she'd knot herself.

  
  


"Yessir! But anyways." The Ruffian Pokémon cleared its throat.

  
  


"So, I saw a little while ago the little Eevee girl and I thought "Hey, hey, it's nice to see the kids having fun together", and she was looking for Ralts so I told her that I hadn't seen him, thinking they were playing Hide'n seek. But then I saw her now, heading towards the beach, and she was talking how Ralts had ditched her for a Marill, an Azurill and a Drowzee?"

  
  


Chimecho felt a bad omen about this. But before she could even voice her concerns, Chatot squawked.

  
  


"A-A Drowzee?!"

  
  


Flapping loudly, he headed over to the bounty board, and Chimecho followed.

  
  


"Oh no." she muttered, seeing what Chatot was worried about.

  
  


A wanted poster was out for a Drowzee that had recently broken out of jail, known for kidnapping unassuming Pokémon.

  
  


Oh no.

* * *

This fucker wasn’t kidding when he said that I was going to go in front. It basically meant that I was acting as a meat shield, which was. Less than preferable.

  
  


“I’ll rip your snout off and feed it to you.” I growled as he prodded me with his foot to make me go forward into yet another tunnel. I could feel the sunlight coming from above unlike the first dungeon I’d been to, but I wasn’t sure any of this made sense. We were in a labyrinth of rooms with corridors that connected them, with limestone walls encasing the whole thing in. However, the sun shone from directly above us, despite not being midday, lighting the whole place up. Could this dungeon be accessed from above?

  
  


“Sure you will, kiddo.” the Drowzee behind me chortled.

  
  


“Just you- guh!” I reeled back as something slammed in my midsection, sending my flying. The Starly that collided with me using Quick Attack made a quick job of retreating quickly, hopping on the spot and waiting for my next move.

  
  


...right. Focus. Deep breaths. Rear back and-

  
  


Starly became Startled when a Geo Pebble collided with its face, courtesy of yours truly. It began flapping its wings, thrown off slightly, and coming face to face with me.

  
  


I responded by screaming all my frustration and anger into its face until it passed out.

  
  


“Good job. Now move.” the yellow ‘mon pushed me again.

  
  


I whipped around, glaring at him. If looks could kill, this asshole would be dead twice over.

  
  


Instead, all it did was faintly outline him in blue for a moment before he glared back at me.

  
  


“You trying to get one over me like that, huh? Guess what, kiddo!” he said, and he brought his hands to his temples.

  
  


_Pain._ I was suddenly being squeezed from all sides in all directions, levitating slightly off of the ground, as my body was assaulted by his psychic force.

  
  


It didn’t hurt _too much,_ but I think that was more my typing was at play than any him going easy on him. That meant that in turn, I hadn’t done shit to him.

  
  


As we moved through the Dungeon, however, it was clear that this weaponised frustration was a psychic type move, and going under the assumption that it is a low level one- It’s Confusion, I can't think of it being any move other than Confusion.

  
  


As we rounded another corner, I scanned the room. A seed (I think?) on the floor, shaped like a brown crescent moon with streaks of purple passing through it.

  
  


And a… how do I even begin to describe this? It was like the unholy union between a bunny and a porcupine, all purple in color. It was curled up on the floor, sleeping under a patch of sun. I… had no idea what this actually was.

  
  


“Well, go take care of that.” Drowzee urged me.

  
  


“You goddamn pachyderm, can we not just go around it?” I hissed, trying to keep my volume down.

  
  


“Hmmm… nope.” he said, pushing me. “I’m the boss here and I say what to do.”

  
  


I growled at him for a moment, before going to fight the thing.

  
  


“Can you at least tell me what type it is?” I asked.

  
  


“Oh? The wittle baby knows type theowy?” he mocked me, laughing. “Poison, kiddo.”

  
  


“Joy.” I glared at him, before turning back to the thing.

  
  


Well. No reason not to play this smart.

  
  


Getting some distance from it, I reared back and beaned it with a Geo Pebble, causing it to wake up.

  
  


By the time that it’d gathered its bearings and began charging at me, another one followed in its wake.

  
  


“Nid! Nido nido-ran!” it shrieked at me. Oh, so that’s what it was.

  
  


I was too slow to defend myself next, and it jabbed me straight on with its horn, making me reel back in pain. Red and purple liquid oozed from the wound, and I grimaced.

  
  


“Well, fuck you too.” I hissed at it, glaring at it and bringing my hands to my temples like Drowzee had done.

  
  


I could picture it in my mind, trying to crush this Nidoran with just my brainpower. I pushed, and grit my teeth, and closed my eyes.

  
  


I only stopped when I heard a sickening crack.

  
  


“Nice job kiddo.” Drowzee called out, making me turn around to face him.

  
  


“Bet you liked watching that and not helping, cree-” as I talked back to him, a sudden flick of his wrist had the seed that was on the floor flying down my throat.

  
  


“Guh-” I tried to get rid of it, but it was too small and lodged inside. And suddenly, everything went blank.

* * *

Beach Cave was, for all intents and purposes, a scary place. However, it was nowhere near as scary as some of the places Toffee’d been to.

  
  


Still, she was walking on her tiptoes and the cold ground and the damp atmosphere was doing no favors to her nerves.

  
  


As she rounded the corner, she realized just how many items the dungeon created. While she hadn’t brought a satchel to bring the Poké scattered around with herself, she still had seen a number of seeds on the floor.

  
  


Right now, in particular, she’d been carrying in her tail a Sleep Seed.

  
  


“ _Does your tail not get tired lifting objects like that?”_ _Ralts_ _inquired as she walked with her prize, an Apple, staring smugly at him. Just because she wasn’t a biped didn’t mean that she couldn’t carry items!_

  
  


“ _I trained up just for this!” she informed him. “Seeds and Orbs are essential to an adventure, you know? I need_ _to be_ _able to toss things, and my paws aren’t much good for that.”_

  
  


As she rounded the corner and entered the next room, lost in thought for a moment, she noticed the stairs sitting in one corner of it. However, it also saw the rocky and jagged exterior of a Corsola set in hiding slamming against her.

  
  


“Ouch!” she said, tumbling to the floor, before rolling back up.

  
  


“Cor!” the feral Pokémon shouted as it raced forwards to slam into her again. Gritting her teeth, Toffee rapidly turned around and used her Tail Whip to deflect the Corsola’s charge. It still hurt, but it sent the pink Rock-Type careening into the floor, leaving her open for Eevee to charge forward, concentrating her power before shoulder checking it with a Tackle.

  
  


The Corsola was sent flying away, and it stayed wise in deciding to not keep fighting. That left Toffee and the stairs.

  
  


“...how many more Pokémon will I have to fight?” she asked herself. “At least those two will be just as tired as I am by the end of this…”

* * *

When everything resumed, it was still in the same place I was before. That hadn’t changed.

  
  


What had changed was in whose company I was.

  
  


I woke up to a fuzzy head with a long beak pecking me, hard, in the sternum. That made me stumble, but it only followed it up with another Peck. This drew blood, hitting especially close to where the Nidoran hit me.

  
  


“Gah, _STOP_!” I shrieked, letting him feel the full blast of my voice.

  
  


It stiffened up, before glaring at me and shouting at me with the both of its heads, the bird’s voice somehow coming out in a raspy growl.

  
  


“Ultra mega super giga _FUCK YOU!”_ I growled, and released another Disarming Voice, letting out the sonorous war cry of a very angry Ralts.

  
  


The Doduo stared at me, and suddenly I felt a surge of fear. I turned around and began running, running, running away from that place.

  
  


It was only thirty or so steps that the fear dimmed, and I realized that it wasn’t my own. But… that Doduo was afraid then? Had I felt its fear?

  
  


Dungeons were confusing.

  
  


I found a room with a set of stairs, bereft of anything else of note besides a small, blue berry sitting in a corner, half hidden, and leaving me to stare at the architectural incongruence of them.

  
  


Like, these were real, fucking stairs? I approached them as I stopped for a moment to take my breath. And then I stopped, and took another, and reached up to tug my bow and undo it. I felt a small part of me die as I untied it from its very nice and elegant look and into a regular sash, but it would have to do.

  
  


I pressed it up against my wounds, then thought better of it and stared at it for a moment.

  
  


The cloth, despite all that I’d been through up until this point, seemed pristine and lacking any dirt or grime. Of course, bacteria wouldn’t just be visible, but that raised the question of whether I could feel the emotions of bacteria and that wasn’t something to delve into right now.

  
  


I grimaced. This would have to do.

  
  


Grabbing the Oran Berry and shuddering at the fact that I was just picking it off the ground and eating it like that (why did I only notice it now?) I slowly bit into it and began chewing on it. The mix of flavors was overpowering, but I didn’t let myself swallow it. Instead, I spat it out on my not-a-hand and began rubbing it across the wound. It stung. Hard.

  
  


As my mind paused to think of the fact that I was doing this all while still standing upright, I fell ass over tea kettle on the floor. At least it wasn’t particularly hard.

  
  


Now, for the hard part… grabbing the sash that I’d made from the Minty Bow, I put it across the wound and over the shitty Oran paste I’d made, before looping it around and…

  
  


...this was going to be weird.

  
  


While still in contact with the bow, I closed my eyes imagined behind myself a pair of hands, grabbing ahold of the sash and tying it into a knot. The sash wasn’t particularly long, but I imagined the hands to be impossibly dexterous, and didn’t get caught up in it or mess up the knot, tying it firmly.

  
  


This concludes First Aid 101 with Nate.

  
  


When I opened back up my eyes, a Doduo was staring at me. “Doduuuuuuuu!”

  
  


“Gah, just take this and go!” I said, chucking an Apple at it. Surprisingly, it followed the instruction, following the Apple’s arc into the other room and quickly stampeding towards it. Something resonated within me, almost like… disappointment.

  
  


This whole “fighting” business was getting real weird real fast.

  
  


I grimaced. Now that I’d tasted half of a berry, my belly took that moment to growl. With a longing look, I took the other half of the Oran berry and put it back in my pack before taking out the other Apple that Marill and Azurill had gotten from the Kecleon mart and chewing on it myself, resuming my inspection of the stairs.

  
  


Each step seemed to be half as tall as I was, cut perfectly out of a type of stone that was smooth and shiny and not at all like the rest of the dungeon.

  
  


...the cognitive dissonance here was strong.

  
  


I began climbing down, thankful for these being stairs and not ladders, and putting some distance between myself and the other Doduo, before a weird sense of unease took me. I closed my eyes for a moment, fighting off the headache, before I realized that I was better off still looking.

  
  


When my eyes were open again, I was somewhere else entirely. What was even more fucked up is that I’d clearly climbed down into the ground, the stairs leading to some sort of grotto inside, but they somehow still led to a place where the sun shone. And looking behind me were not the stairs.

  
  


Or rather, they were! A couple dozen feet off from me, but there were another set of stairs that led even further down.

  
  


...and that meant I would have to go through another mind fuck. Letting out a small whimper, I began walking over before any more feral Pokémon could show up to attack me.

  
  


_Tap-tap-tap-tap_

  
  


Suddenly- and I mean appearing _out of nowhere_ was yet another Doduo. Yet, instead of attacking me, it just stared at me with all four of its eyes.

  
  


_Curiosity, fear,_ _**hunger.** _

  
  


It was dizzying, but as the emotions came into focus something occurred to me.

  
  


This Doduo was not a different one, it was the same that I sent away with an Apple, and the same that attacked me earlier.

  
  


...and it was staring expectantly at my other, half-finished Apple.

  
  


“...you motherfucker.” I growled, walking up to it. “Come here then.” I said, showing it the prized fruit.

  
  


It walked up to me, and then snatched the fruit out of my paws. I wondered for a moment if I could broadcast emotions to him the same way he did to me.

  
  


Walking to its side, I gripped its feathers and began trying to climb it. As it began pushing me off, I growled. “Oh fuck no you’re not. You accepted the deal, now pay the dues to the devil.” and just pushed my meaning of _Command._

  
  


“Dooo…” It whined, but stopped resisting and even lowered itself slightly.

  
  


Ever so slowly, I climbed onto its back- one of its heads turned to stare at me, and the other was looking around, keeping a sort of lookout. “Do?”

  
  


“To the next floor, my new pet.”

  
  


Maybe dungeons weren’t so bad after all.

* * *

Azurill yawned. He’d been pretty tired from the whole walk up until this point, so he was pretty tired. This nap had been pretty great for him! Though his tail was kinda sore...

  
  


However, when he opened his eyes, it wasn’t to the group of people he’d expect. Mr. Drowzee was there, but there was no Marill or Ralts.

  
  


“Mr. Drowzee?” He asked as he bounced himself back on top of his tail. Ow. That hurt.

  
  


“Ah, glad to see you’re awake!” Drowzee turned around, smiling at him. “Have you had a pleasant sleep?”

  
  


“Mhm!” Azuririll beamed.

  
  


“I’m so glad.”

  
  


“But… where are my brother and Ralts?” he asked.

  
  


“Ah, young Marill and Ralts. You see, when we arrived at the dungeon, you were so exhausted from the way here that you fell asleep. I offered to carry you, but poor Marill remembered that he had to do something for your poor mother, and Ralts offered to help him. Very kind, those two.”

  
  


“Ooooh…” Azurill muttered. “I see.”

  
  


“In the meantime, I have brought you along because someone must look after you in these times.”

  
  


“Alright Mr. Drowzee! Are we going to get our precious item back?”

  
  


“Indeed, yes we are. Now, you should stick very close to me while we’re here, alright?”

  
  


“Yes, Mr. Drowzee sir!” Marill agreed, bouncing on his tail.

  
  


“Good boy. Now, let us go.”

* * *

When Marill broke out of his reverie, he gasped. He’d gone to check out a berry bush inside of a small nook, and when he was back the group was gone!

  
  


And… Mount Bristle was a Mystery Dungeon, and was the cove of a very bad Pokémon…

  
  


Would Azurill be fine without him?

  
  


There was Mr. Drowzee and Ralts too… but Mr. Drowzee was an explorer, right? He’d seen battles in his old days… but…

  
  


“What if there’s more bad Pokémon than Mr. Drowzee knows of?” he asked, tilting his head. “He has to fight while protecting both Azurill and Ralts…”

  
  


Marill could picture as Mr. Drowzee fought bravely, another bad Pokémon sneaking by and just gobbling up Azurill in one bite.

  
  


“Someone needs to save them! But…” he began shaking. “I-I can’t do it. It’s too scary in there…” he muttered.

  
  


“What-what do I do?” he asked himself, walking up to the mouth of the dungeon. He could feel the energy of the Mystery Dungeon, the chaotic disturbance that threatened to swallow him whole if he got too close.

  
  


And then, out of the fracture between the two sides of the mountain came out a Machop.

  
  


“Chop! Chop chop Ma-chop!” It leered at him.

  
  


“Aaaaah!” Marill screamed. “I’ve gotta go get help!”

* * *

 _Grovyle_ _ran a hand on his leaf, sighing. This was something he’d picked up from his_ _trainer-_ _it was commonplace to see the human doing that gesture with hair,_ _rather than leaf_ _, but it still was something that would keep his hands busy._

  
  


_Despite having been separated from said human,_ _Grovyle_ _still_ _had a mission_ _._

  
  


_They’d_ _come to the conclusion_ _that despite the risk of alerting_ _all of the_ _Time Gear guardians here in the past before_ _having the chance_ _to get a surprise strike on one of them, that due to most of them being psychic types and due to Ditto’s unpredictability it would still be better to get this one first, to avoid any of them exposing_ _the identity of_ _him and the human both._

  
  


_...of course, now that was only him. But still, he’d follow through._

  
  


_Treeshroud_ _Forest was not kind to his typing. If he were any lesser a Pokémon, he might’ve found himself_ _quicky_ _overrun by the_ _Houndooms_ _and_ _Ninetales_ _._

  
  


_Learning Dig was quickly becoming a fond memory, in hindsight, despite_ _all of_ _the troubles they’d gone through to get the darned HM._

  
  


_Still, the forest was annoying to deal with, especially given that he was alone._ _Mistery_ _Dungeons were not meant for alone dwelling, and for all that his human had been puny, items were still a thing that he didn’t have to deal with until now._

  
  


_With a grimace, he bit down on a flame-shaped seed and let out a gout of flames that scalded his tongue and burned his cheeks, but also dispersed the_ _Combee_ _attacking him before rushing towards the_ _Vespiquen_ _with a combo of Quick Attack and Leaf Blade._

  
  


_He panted. For all that he was trying to save energy, this dungeon seemed_ _to be_ _having it out for him. Perhaps it was true, maybe the Mystery Dungeon could sense what his aim was and decided to_ _try and_ _stop him._

  
  


_He wouldn’t let it._

  
  


_Proceeding into the next room,_ _Grovyle_ _barely_ _had the chance_ _to take a step before Pokémon began falling from the ceiling. In a split second decision, he began identifying them_ _all-_ _Three_ _Houndoom_ _, two_ _Ninetales_ _, a_ _Cherrim_ _, a_ _Kirlia_ _, an_ _Alakazam_ _, three_ _Vespiquen_ _, two of which were behind him._

  
  


_The Dungeon was definitely out to kill him._

  
  


_Rifling through his bag, he grimaced at_ _the sensation of_ _the psychic energy beginning to build up and the droning of_ _Combee_ _rushing out of the Vespiquen’s body._

  
  


_The Foe-Hold orb put a stop to that. It wouldn’t last forever, but suddenly_ _all of the_ _ferals_ _here were frozen, a spectacle that made him snort given his intentions, and it gave him time to carefully navigate through them._

  
  


_And if he ran the_ _Kirlia_ _through with a Leaf Blade for catharsis, well, no one would blame him for getting rid of one of the foes. He hadn’t killed it, just severely incapacitated, but even if he had, the damn_ _ferals_ _seemed to pop out of the walls._

  
  


_The fact that this dungeon had tried to make it more personal was only an annoyance_ _rather than_ _a problem._

  
  


_Going into the next room, he spotted the stairs that would lead him to the next floor. He’d long since given up trying to understand how there were corridors and stairs in a forest, but still there were, made of white marble and leading to the next floor of the distortion._

  
  


_And behind him, all hell broke loose. With a self-satisfied grin, he dashed with Quick Attack into the next floor._

* * *

_**Omake:**_ Let's take a break from all the seriousness and go back to a week ago, shall we?

**Canon Level** : Tsareena Fight Club (6/10)

We didn't have to come to this, and yet we did.

The ultimate test for the ages.

Me against Eevee, friend against friend, normal against psychic type.

What was the cause of the rift between us, you may ask?

Simple enough.

_THE PECHA BERRYYYY-_

"Remember not to kill each other, kids! But also don't go easy, that's boring." I chanced a glance at the weird humanoid grass type.

It had taken me a while to get used to the Fruit Pokemon in the first place, because despite everything, she looked far too human for my tastes. With leaves mimicking hair, a body with thick long eyelashes- it just looked uncomfortable, alright?

But she _was_ the only one willing to look after younger Pokémon in these trying times and teach them a little bit of fighting. Personally, I think she was just sadistic and took glee in seeing kids beat the shit out of each other.

Anyways.

Sitting on the ground a good fourty something feet in front of me, the prized berry.

On the opposite side, at the same distance from me, Eevee.

"Knocking each other unconscious is fine, but no biting, stabbing or any other assorted maiming is allowed, if you get out of the circle with the berry you're safe, and if an attack makes its way towards me you're a goner, okay?" she grinned viciously, making us both gulp. "Begin!"

I saw Eevee start out with Quick Attack, quickly making her way towards the berry at a speed I could not hope to match...

Well, beyond the fact that I could move at _INFINITE SPEED_ , and so I did. Focusing on the idea of simply being there, I blinked, and I was in front of the berry.

I picked it up, only to get Eevee slamming into me with a heavy blow and sending us both toppling to the ground and the berry flying.

Picking myself up first with a grunt, I screamed, sending a wave of Fairy energy towards Eevee. She dodged, so I kept up the barrage, forcing her to take more and more distance.

As I saw that she was far enough away, I stopped in favor of attempting another Teleport.

"No!" Eevee shouted, turning around and quickly rushing in another Quick Attack.

But this time, I saw it coming.

The psychic energy that I'd been gathering in order to fold the space around me was instead transferred all to my limbs. I waited for Eevee to be close to drop to the ground, watching her eyes widen as I instead let her go above me and then kicked at her with all my might, watching her sail through the air.

...there was, however, one thing that I hadn't calculated.

The trajectory with which Eevee flew out of the circle was leading her right towards Tsareena, still empowered with Quick Attack energy. Tsareena narrowed her eyes before glancing at me.

My eyes widened as I felt myself instinctively drop into a bow as her Queenly Majesty activated. And...

You ever see a baseball batter hit a ball?

Because that's what Tsareena did. Except, instead of using a baseball bat, she used her legs.

And instead of a ball, it was Eevee.

A Trop Kick saw Eevee's momentum redirected entirely towards the opposite direction, which just so happened to be mine.

I never even stood a chance.

* * *

"Don't laugh."  
  


"I am not laughing." Chimecho said, though the air reeked of her amusement, despite her being a psychic type. She wasn't even trying to hide it!

I grit my teeth. And then I took a deep breath. Breathe in-

and breathe out-

_Fweeee_ ~!

"Heheheh!" Chimecho giggled, and I slammed my palm against my face, hard.

And that is the story of how I lost my first tooth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, hasn't it? But here I am to entertain you.
> 
> I never actually plan to abandon this story, ever, and the time I've been away I've spent building a decent cache of chapters that I can upload. 
> 
> I'm just glad to be back, honestly.

**Author's Note:**

> If you wish to speak to me and dozens of other wonderful writers and memelords, please check out the Fanfiction Treehouse on Discord! While most of the people there post Fire Emblem, together we can help reclaim it in the good name of Pokémon, so help a brother out on a conquering mission! https://discord.gg/9XG3U7a


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